Koothanur Maha Saraswathi Amman Temple

It is a small village, yet there is no shortage of people coming to ask for learning. Past the three-tiered rajagopuram, the goddess sits in a pose of penance on a white lotus, a crystal rosary in one hand and a water vessel in the other. Lakshmi Narayana Perumal has a shrine close by, which is why the temple's full name carries both.

The temple legend is the story of a poet. Ottakoothar, later famous at the Chola court as Kavichakravarthi, turned to the goddess of learning for the gift of making verse at will. He planted a flower garden near Koothanur and each day carried water from the south-flowing Arisol river to bathe and worship her. Moved by his devotion, she gave him the betel she was chewing, and from that moment he became a born poet, rising to serve as court poet to three Chola kings. In his Thakkayaga Parani he blessed her as "the lady of words on the river bank". Kambar also sang of this goddess.

The village owes its name to the same poet. This is where Ottakoothar was born, and Rajaraja Chola gave him the village itself as a reward for his poetry: Koothan's oor, Koothanur.

Navarathri is the temple's heartbeat, with a new decoration for the goddess on each of the nine nights. On Saraswathi Puja alone her feet are brought forward and adorned, and devotees may scatter flowers on them with their own hands, a chance families travel from far away not to miss. On Saraswathi Puja and Vijayadasami she goes round the streets on the swan vahana, and on Vijayadasami parents queue with small children for the Aksharabhyasam, the first lesson in letters. Every full moon brings a special puja.

The temple's story is bound up with Ottakoothar, who lived at the Chola court in the 12th century and praised this goddess in his own Parani; Kambar honoured her after him. Today it is registered with the HR&CE Department as the Maha Saraswathi Amman and Lakshmi Narayana Perumal temple. It has a three-tiered rajagopuram, and its kumbhabhishekam was held in July 2003.

The first prayer here is for learning. Families bring children before school admission and before exams, and small children have their Aksharabhyasam done in the temple itself. Honey from the goddess's abhishekam is given as prasadam to children who are slow to start speaking, and many pray for their children's studies on full moon days. These are devotional practices based on faith, and no result is promised. Worries about a child's speech or development need a doctor; prayer is not a substitute for treatment.