Sengazhuneer Amman Temple, Veerampattinam – Legends

Sengazhuneer Amman Temple, Veerampattinam – Legends

Veerampattinam is a fishing village and a man named Veeraraghavan was living there in an ancient time. One fine morning, he set out for fishing in a nearby rivulet. He had no catch till sunset and was totally disappointed but he didn’t give up and made a final attempt before he returned home. When he was withdrawing the net, he was very happy as he felt a heavy resistant which is usually due to a big catch. But he disappointed eventually as there was no fish instead it was a big piece of wood. He took it home and kept it in the backyard.

One day his wife found no firewood for cooking and decided to cut the wood to make it useful. When she hit the wood with an axe, it was shocking and she couldn’t believe it as blood was oozing out from the axe cut. She immediately informed her husband and the villagers. Astonished Veera Raghavan kept the wood inside his home and started performing pooja. He was very happy and life became prosperous for him.

After some days, Amman (Lady God) appeared in Veeraraghavan’s dream and told him that you got the wood because of my blessings. She asked him to use the wood as Peeta (Base) and to install her idol on the base at a specific location in the village. She asked him to worship the idol as Sengazhuneer Amman before disappearing from his dream. Veeraraghavan informed the villagers about his dream. All the villagers set out to find the place indicated by Amman. They found an ant-hill from where a serpent (cobra) came out and beat the ground thrice with its hood, thus showing them the place where they had to establish the idol.

The wood was brought for setting the peeta and made a granite idol of Sengazhuneer Amman head. The temple was gradually developed stage by stage from a small hut to a huge temple over the centuries. A temple car was made centuries ago and it was the first temple in the province of Puducherry to have a temple car.