Bannari Mariamman Temple

The temple sits right beside the road about 14 km west of Sathyamangalam, where the climb to the Thimbam ghat begins. Forest closes in on every side, and a stream called Thoranappallam runs past the west wall all year round. The goddess faces south. What you see in the sanctum is a self-formed (svayambu) stone, no sculptor's work, worshipped as the goddess herself. The plan is modest: sanctum, artha mandapam, maha mandapam, sobana mandapam and a single prakaram.

The temple legend goes like this. Three hundred years ago the place was thick forest, and herders from nearby villages drove their cattle here to graze, sleeping in pens among the trees. One black cow would never stand still at milking time and gave nothing even to her calf. Puzzled, the herder trailed her the next day and found her letting her milk flow on its own beneath a vengai tree, in a patch of kanangu grass. The village elders cleared the spot and found an anthill with the self-formed image beside it. Then the goddess spoke through a man in the crowd. She had come from Mannarkkad in Kerala, she said, guarding traders who drove pack bullocks to Mysuru; she liked this beautiful place and would stay, and they were to worship her as Bannari Mariamman. The villagers put up a hut of kanangu grass and began daily village-style worship. A small shrine with a vimana and an image on a lotus pedestal came later.

There is no vibhuti here: the prasadam is earth from the anthill. Her following reaches well beyond the Kongu region, with large numbers coming from Karnataka. Tuesdays, Fridays and new moon days are crowded, and so are Deepavali, Pongal and both the Tamil and English New Year. The sacred tree is the vengai; the temple's water is its tank-well (theppakkinaru).

The year turns on the Panguni Kundam, a festival of about twenty days. Devotees go into the forest for firewood, stack it high and burn it down to a bed of embers some eight feet long. After the pre-dawn Ganapathi homam the chief priest crosses first; from about 4 am until the temple closes, devotees follow in an unbroken line, and at the end cattle and goats are led across too. More than five lakh people come, and Erode district declares a local holiday.

The self-formed image was found in the forest about three hundred years ago. Worship began in a grass hut; later the villagers and their headmen built a small temple with a vimana and set an image on a lotus pedestal. No inscriptions are recorded for the temple. It is administered today by the HR&CE Department.

People come here to pray about poor eyesight, pox, the blessing of a child, work, marriage, problems with the hands or legs, and a good harvest. A custom special to Bannari is buying a small metal plate embossed with a hand, foot or eye, having it blessed in an archanai and dropping it in the hundi. Walking the Kundam, draping a sari on the goddess, lighting lamps and giving annadhanam are the other usual vows, and many take home the neem leaves the temple gives out. These are matters of faith; for any illness, please see a doctor first.