vettudaiya kali, ariyakurichi,sivaganga

Vettudaiya Kali,Ariyakurichi,Sivagangai.

This Vettudaiya Kali dwells in a small Village, 13 k.m East of the town "Sivagangai", called Ariyakurichi, on the way to the coastal town 'Thondi' Ariyakurichi is 2 k.m south from the village 'Kollangudi', which is located on the way to 'Thondi' from Sivagangai.

The queen of Sivagangai was on her way back to Sivagangai after attending the funeral of her husband who was killed by the British General Kernel Joseph at Kalayarkoil. The British force was following her secretly. At Ariyakuruchi they asked an young girl who was there to feed her cattle about the whereabouts of the queen, who refused to reveal anything. The soldiers killed her by cutting her head. She was then prayed as Kali. Later the queen of Sivagangai, Velu Natchiar, donated a lot of arable land to this temple. She even gave away her diamond mangal sutra to the goddess as an offering. Kali upholds morality and punished the evildoers and perjweers when the affected devotees pray her for justice. They pray her and cut some coins into two with a chisel and mallet, praying to her to do justice to them. As she was killed by the rulers without any justice she will be very angry with the people who are misusing their power on innocents.

To wipe out bad things to make the bad people understand their faults the "God" - a supreme power took the incarnation of "Kali"- the destructive Goddess of evil in the world. The great saint Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was inspired by the Goddess Kali - who dwells in Calcutta. In the north of India, many great men like Kalidasa - a great Sanskrit poet and Vikramaditya – an honest king who ruled Ujjain worshipped "Kali" and got benefited.

This Vettudaiya Kali dwells in a small Village, 13 k.m East of the town "Sivagangai", called Ariyakurichi, on the way to the coastal town 'Thondi' Ariyakurichi is 2 k.m south from the village 'Kollangudi', which is located on the way to 'Thondi' from Sivagangai.

Nearest Railway Station : Sivagangai- 13Kms.

Nearest Airport : Madurai- 57 Kms.

The temple is amidst paddy fields at Ariyakurichi. It has a small tower at the entrance and Lord Muruga and Lord Ganapathi on either side of it. The God, who can be seen through the main tower entrance, is Lord Vettudaiya Ayyanar. Wearing Panjakatcham and Yogasana Pattai. hip near the left leg and Thanda at right hand with Sandal Puttu at magudam he appears. Instead of convoluted lock, which Ayanar generally has, He has a lock of fire. Ayyanar is called as 'Maha Sastha' like 'Bala Sastha' of Sabarimala, Ayyappan. Ayyanar is with His consorts 'Poorna' and 'Pushkala' 'Artha Mandapam' , a building which leads to sanctum sanctorum, has the idols of Lord Murugan and Lord Vinayagar. Karuppa Velalar statue is situated outside the Arthamandapam right side to Ayyanar, who performed poojas on the back of the hearts around 60

villages. He sitting on the horse appears beneath Dwaraga Palagar. They are  Kurichi plants are abundant in the forest area hence it is called Ariyakurichi.  Diagonally apposite to Ayyanar has the Sanctum sanctorumof Goddess  'Vettudayar Kali', looking towards the west. There was no idol 200 years  ago at the spot, where the stone idol exists now. The stone idol  replaced the mud idol some sixty years ago. The corridor next to  sanctum sanctorum features the paintings of Goddess blissful adventures.  The temple has the idols of Lord Anjaneya, Solama1aisamy,  Lord Meenakshi Sundareshwarar and Lord Thirumal. Lord Karupanaswamy  is not inside the campus of the temple.

Once Parvathi, the consort of Lord Siva, playfully closed the eyes of Lord Siva. That resulted in the black out of fourteen worlds. She was punished by Lord Siva to be born in the world as Kali. 'Kalam’ in Tamil means 'Black'. 'Kali' is one who is black in complexion. Kali killed Sandasuran, an evil demon who had been giving trouble to the Devas. The place in which the Devas stayed is 'Devakottai', the place where they saw 'Kali' or 'Devi' is 'Kandadevi', the place where the Sandasuran Therkodi broken is called 'Kodikulam' , the place in which 'Kali' defeated Sandasuran is 'Vetriyur', the place he conquered is called 'Vettriyur' and the place where the Devas showered the flowers is called 'Poongudi'. After which she went to Kalayarkoil to worship 'Kaleeswarar' (Lord Siva) and to get redeemed from Her punishment and then she became 'Umadevi' (Parvathi).
Special Aspects
Kali is the symbol of courage and Valour. She is in a sitting posture with Her  left leg crossed and the right leg lying on the demon and with a  Trident (Scepter) symbolizing a weapon to uphold goodness and honesty.  People of this area have a belief that they should worship another Goddess  who dwells in 'Karungulam' near Kandaramanickam (Tiruppattur)  'ParaNachiAmman', within one year after worshipping Kali. Kali has  eight hands with weapons of many sorts, meant only to destroy that  evil things, in each hand. She is facing the Western direction but is  capable of removing evils an around Her. She appears with Sulam,  Angusam, Vall, and Arrow in her four right hands, Pasam, Gedayam, Vil  and Kabalam in her four left hands.