Somanadham Someswaram Samastha
Gunaparagam |
Gora-Padhaka thavagnim Jyothir-Swaroopam Namamyagam
||
'Mahadeva
Somanatham' became one of the Jyothir linga sthalam. The legend
is King Dakhsa married his 27 daughters (other than Devi Dhakshayini
) to Soman (the Moon) who started with equal love to all his 27
wives. But later he became very fond of only two of his wives called
Aswini and Rohini. He spent all his time only with the two of
them.
Rest of the wives were upset about their husband's
partiality and complained to their father Dhaksha about his
behaviour. Dhakshan called his son-in-law adviced him to be impartial
towards all his wives. Soman just pretented to hear but never
followed his father in law's advice. Dhakshan got very angry and
cursed him to sufer severe ill-health and loose his charm.
Soman
became very sad and went to all devas for help. But no one could save
him from the curse. At last he went to Brahma and told him his sad
story. But Brahma said he could do nothing and suggested that shiva
could help with his problems. He also said that Soman should do
penance to Shiva at the place where the river Saraswathi joins the
sea chanting the 'mrithynjeya manthra'
Accordingly he went to the
earth and found the place where the river Saraswathi mingled with the
sea and did penence for many many years standing on one leg There was
a Siva lingam from Pathala-loga called Hadakeswarar. Finaly shiva
appeared before him in ' Jyothir-Swaroopa' from Hadakeswara lingam
and told him " Chandra I am aware of your curse; but no one can
reverse the curse of a brahmin in this universe. But I can give you a
boon that you will be on My lock waxing and waning. One fortnight you
would grow becoming round and bright on the fifteenth day. From next
day the waning would start becoming very dark end of that fortnight.
This way you would live for ever and keep your charm for 1day in a
month ".
The
waning phase is called 'Krishna-Paksham' and the growing phase is
called Sukla-Paksham. Siva further enjoined on Soman not be partial
to anybody but to treat all his wives with equal love. Soman agreed
gladly. From that time onwards we have the two phases of the Moon.
As
Hadakeswara Lingam became a Jyothir Lingam because of Soman's penance
it is also known as "Someswara lingam ". The place where
siva gave the boon to Soman came to be called Somanadha-stalam.
This is also one of 51 Devi peetams. The sakthi here is Chandrabagha
Devi
The temple has three parts - the entrance 'mantap', the sabha
'mantap' and then the Sanctum. The somanatha Lingam also called the
north face or the 'kalaa-agni' is on a huge base. Behind this is the
shrine for the consort Devi.
Om Hreem Namasivaya
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