After King Rajashekhara adopted Ayyappa, his own biological son, Raja Rajan, was born. Both the boys grew up in a princely manner. Ayyappa, or Manikandan, was intelligent and excelled in martial arts and the knowledge of various shastras, or scriptures. He surprised everyone with his superhuman powers. Upon completing his princely training and studies when he offered gurudakshina, or a fee to his guru, the master, aware of his divine power, asked him for a blessing of sight and speech for his blind and dumb son.
Nov 10, 2017 - Lord Ayyappa is a very popular Hindu diety, who is mainly worshipped in South India. Ayyappa was born out of the union between God Shiva and Mohini, an avatar of Lord Vishnu. Ayyappa's birth story:: Goddess Durga killed the demon Mahishasur, and his sister, Mahishi set out to avenge her brother's death. 18 Golden Steps - Story of Swamy Ayyappa. Hosted by The Untold Story and Mithun Shyam. Saturday, December 22, 2018 at 7:00 PM.
Manikantan placed his hand on the boy, and the miracle happened. When it was time to name the heir to the throne, King Rajashekhara wanted Ayyappa, or Manikantan, but the queen wanted her own son to be the king.
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She plotted with the diwan, or minister, and her physician to kill Manikandan. Feigning illness, the queen made her physician ask for an impossible remedy—lactating tigress' milk.
When no one could procure it, Manikandan volunteered to go, much against his father's will. On the way, he chanced upon the demon Mahishi and slew her on the banks of the river Azhutha. Manikandan then entered the forest for tigress milk, where he met Lord Shiva. At his behest he sat on the tiger, who was Lord Indra taking the form of a tiger. He rode back to the palace on the tiger and others followed in the form of tigers and tigresses. Those people who'd ridiculed him for taking the journey ran away at his approach with the wild animals.
Then his true identity was revealed to his father. Lord Ayyappa is believed to have laid down strict religious adherence to receive his blessings. First, the devotees should observe a 41-day penance before visiting him in the temple. They should maintain abstinence from physical pleasures and family ties and live like a celibate, or brahmachari.
They should also continuously contemplate on the goodness of life. Moreover, the devotees have to bathe in the holy river Pampa, adorn themselves with three-eyed coconut (representing Shiva) and aantha garland, and then brave the steep climb of the 18 stairs to the Sabarimala temple. Sabarimala in Kerala is the most famous Ayyappa shrine, visited by more than 50 million devotees every year, making it one of the most popular pilgrimages in the world. Pilgrims from around the country brave the dense forests, steep hills, and inclement weather to seek the blessings of Ayyappa on January 14, known as Makar Sankranti, or Pongal, when the Lord himself is said to descend in the form of light. The devotees then accept, or the Lord's food offerings, and descend the 18 steps, walking backward with their faces turned toward the Lord.
Worshipping Lord Sastha with His consorts has been in vogue in Tamil Nadu and Kerala from time immemorial. In various puranas it is said that Lord Hariharaputhra was born to Shiva and Mohini (Vishnu). He materialised himself the shape of a tiny child called 'MANIKANTA' on the banks of Holy River Pambha, brought up by Pandiya King, healed the deaf and dumb boy of HIS Guru, gone to the dense forests as per evil designs of His stepmother, slained Demoness Mahishi, brought leopard milk for His step-mother and took to yoga at Sabari Hills. The Pandalam kingdom had its beginning around 904 AD when a scion of the declining Paandya kingdom of Madurai in Tamil Nadu took refuge in Kerala when attacked by the Cholas, and established the Kingdom of Pandalam. The Sasta shrine at Sabarimala had been there from time immemorial as the guardian deity of the people and rulers in and around forest area.
When Pandalam dynasty was established the then king accepted the Sasta at Sabarimala as his family deity and ruled the newly formed principality as a devotee of Sasta. Around tenth century - anarchy prevailed in those days in Kerala.
People around Pandalam lived in perpetual fear of attack by Udayanan, and his gangsters who committed dacoit and murder. Udayanan, had come with his hordes from Tamil regions beyond the borders and dominated the regions of Kerala. Udayanan built up many fortresses on the mountain of Talappara, Inchippara and Karimala in the forests of Pandalam. The temple of Sabarimala where Dharma Sastha was worshipped from the very ancient past was on the route - a highway between Tamilnadu and Kerala, along which the merchants have traveled. Udayanan used to plunder wealth from the travelers and the villages nearby. This amount of success made Uadayanan so brutal, that he attacked the Dharmasasta Temple at Sabarimala. Udayanan and his hordes plundered this temple, destroyed it and broke the idol of Dharma Sastha into pieces. They also murdered the priest so that it would not be possible to conduct poojas there. The son of the priest escaped.
He wandered amidst the mountain ranges awaiting an opportunity to wreak the vengeance up on Udayanan. Jayanthan, son of the priest, distressed by the gruesome murder of his father,decided to take revenge by killing Udayanan and his band, and to rebuild and consecrate Sastha temple at Sabari Hills. Udayanan in one of his marauding expeditions reached up to the Kingdom of Pandalam. He saw the princess of Pandalam and wished to make her his consort, he sent the marriage proposal to the King, which was respectfully refused by the King. Enraged by the King’s denial he attacked the palace, plundered it and abducted a princess. Uadayanan dumped her into a dark prison and gave her one month to make up her mind or face demise.
That night Lord Sastha appeared in her dream and informed that she will be soon rescued and Lord himself will take birth as her son. Concurrently Lord also appeared in the dream of Jayanathan who was at Ponambalammedu and instructed him to rescue the Princess and marry her so that he could take birth as their Son.
While the burglars with their booty were traveling through the mountain routes, the son of the priest made a lightning attack on them and set the princess free. Since she was missing for more than 21 days from the palace, the royal family considered her to be dead and performed all her last rites.
So Jayanthan eventually married the princess and they settled in an inaccessible forest region (near the present Ponnambalamedu), engaging in intense austerities and meditation. They earnestly prayed to Lord Dharma Saastha for a son who would be able to fight Udayanan, destroy him and liberate Sabarimala Temple. Soon the couple begot a child. The child was born on AD -they named the Child as -Aryan as blessed by Sastha. Aryan was Lord Sastha’s one of the prominent names.
Jayanthan educated and trained Aryan in all fields of religion, science and military art. Aryan was given adequate training both in scriptures and warfare by his able father. It was the intention of the father to bring him up in perfect military discipline with sufficient background in spiritual matters. Aryan became extra ordinarily brave and intelligent. Once, the King of erstwhile Punjar state Manavikraman, was on a journey and was surrounded by dacoits in the jungles of Vandiperiyar(Today's Pulmedu). King Manavikraman fought to his extent but was over powered by the dacoits.
He started praying to Goddess Meenakshi of Madurai and his prayers were answered when a young boy riding on an elephant came to rescue of the King. It was Ayyappa who was wandering in the jungle, who had tamed a wild elephant and riding on its back.
Ayyappa saved the King Manavikraman of from the Dacoits of Udayanan’s Group. He gave a “Perambu” - cane as his representative and asked to King to proceed to his Palace without any fear.
Just before Ayyappa's departure from Kayankulam, a messanger came to announce the attack of Vavar the pirate, in the coastal areas. Ayyappa was excited and joyful to start attck as early as anything, as Vavar himself arrived to gather his fortune!
The Karanavar ( head ) of Mullasseril family, who was the minister as well as the bravest soldier of Kayamkulam Raja, was to assist Ayyappa in the attempt. Conquering both body and mind of Vavar and converting him as a disciple, Ayyappa, with the consent of the Raja, gathered the nearby Kalari leaders and soldiers in the vast, beautiful ground at Pullukulangara. With Erumeli as a center point, Ayyapa nurtured a powerful army which could fight Udayanan’s army in a very short time with the help of Vavar, Kadutha, Villan and Mallan.
Ayyappan, with his army, marched through the forests, but the first attack was not that successful. Enraged by this, Udayanan conspired with a group of Chieftains abducted Cheramoopan's girl and killed Moopan's daughter. So Ayyappan asked all the members to observe strict Vrutham before entering Sastha’s Poonakavanam. After the Vrutham for 56 days, they worshipped Kiratha Sastha at Erumeli for the victory in the war. All the army battalions started assembling at erumeli and in order to avoid suspicion, he ordered the troop to dress as tribal people.(present day Pettai thullal). Aravind Subramanyam,Author at Pandalam Palace After this, they proceeded to Sabarimala Sastha temple, where Ayyappan's father Jayanthan and others were ready to install a fresh idol of Sastha. Right from the moment he stepped into the holy mountain, Ayyappa was in silence and meditation. Until the completion of the Srikovil and installation of the idol, Ayyappan sat on meditation at the place where today’s Manimantapam stands.
On the first day of the month of Makaram when the sun moved from the zodiac of Dhanus to that of Makaram, the re-installation of the idol was ceremoniously conducted. Ayyappa did the reconsecration in Sabarimala temple. Soon after the ceremony was over, a holy flame was seen at Ponnambalamedu and no one saw the Prince Arya Kerala Varman - Ayyappan thereafter. It was only thus everyone realized the amazing truth that their lovable, gentle, ameable, merciful young prince was the incarnation ( avatar ) of Sri Dharma Sastha!