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Festival: |
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41 day Mandala Puja commences on the first day of Karthikai month – November-December. The puja ends with Aarattu event in the Karamani River on the last day. |
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Temple's Speciality: |
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The Vimana – tower above the sanctum sanctorum - is in a cone shape as that of spider web. |
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Opening Time: | |
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The temple is open from 5.00 a.m. to 11.00 a.m. and from 5.00 p.m. to 8.00 p.m. |
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Address: | |
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Sri Dharma Sastha Temple, Karamanai, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala State. |
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Phone: | |
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+91 471- 245 1837 | |
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General Information: | |
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Though there is no roof above, the sanctum sanctorum has a covering in a cone shape as that of spider. There are walls around with windows in the middle part. The devotee can have the darshan of Lord Dharma Sastha not only directly at the sanctum but also through the windows. Though Thiruvananthapuram has many Sastha temples, this is very old by times, hence Lord is praised as Aadhi Sastha – First Sastha. |
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Prayers | |
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Devotees pray to Lord Sastha with various wishes in their
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Thanks giving: | |
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Devotees carry the traditional Irumudi on their heads and perform ghee abishek to Lord. | |
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Greatness Of Temple: | |
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For devotees in Thiruvananthapuram and surrounding areas, this Sastha Temple is not different from Sabarimala. They do the Irumudi rituals in the houses, come to the temple and perform ghee abishek to Lord Dharma Sastha. Ghee abishek to Lord is offered on all the first day of Malayalam months and on important festival days. People here use to place the first invitation at the feet of Lord for functions such as marriages etc. in their families. A Shivalinga and Nagar are installed under the Bodhi tree – Arasamaram in Tamil. |
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Temple History: | |
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Thiruvananthapuram, now a modern city and capital of Kerala state was known earlier as Ananthan Kadu, a region of forests. The Maharaja of Karamanai, who has built many temples, was passing through this place and found an idol of Sastha under a spider web. He decided to take it and build a temple. Lord Sastha appeared in his dream and told the king not to take the idol to the village as He loved to stay in forests and asked him to build the temple where spiders had made their webs. Lord also advised the king not to build a roof as sky alone may be the limit. As directed by Lord, the king built this temple. |
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Special Features: | |
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Miracle Based:
The Vimana-tower above the sanctum sanctorum is of a cone design as that of a spider web.
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