Goddess Kathayee manifests
as Goddess Valli
Reasons for initial manifestation of Goddess Kathayee as Goddess Valli is explained in previous chapters. Once it was decided to annihilate the soul of Soorasimman for ever, the Celestials anxiously waited to see how the events will unfold. As time passed, when the destined time for the annihilation of the soul of Soorasimman emerged, he took birth on earth in the name of Sooran. On hearing the birth of Sooran, the Celestials ran to Lord Brahma and requested him to do needful to eliminate Soorasimman’s soul once for all. Lord Brahma calmed them down since already stage was set for manifestation of three divine forces needed for the annihilation of Soorasimman.
At the same time when the celestial were pleading with Lord Brahma, in earth Lord Vishnu resting on Adhishesha was deeply absorbed with one of the past enchanting dance moments of Lord Shiva. While mentally engrossed in the grace, beauty, majesty and grandeur of the dance of bliss, few drops of tears from the welled up eyes of Lord Vishnu fell in ecstasy. The tears immediately turned out into two girls and they were named Sundaravalli and Amurthavalli in deference to the mystery boon of Lord Brahma. Thus the countdown to the annihilation of Soorasimman commenced with the birth of Sundaravalli and Amurthavalli through Lord Vishnu who manifested from the male part of Parasakthi when universe was created.
In the next stage of action elsewhere on earth, the divine energies of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathi suddenly merged and fell in a bush without staying in the womb of Goddess Parvathi which in turn took the form of a child. The child –the third manifestation which fell on the grass bed was caressed by the waiting celestial as per the pre-determined act in the divine drama, and became Lord Muruga on earth. Thus the third manifestation in human form which was destined to join with Sundaravalli and Amurthavalli at a later stage manifested. The next stage in the act was the rebirth of Sundaravalli and Amurthavalli.
The time passed with all three manifestations grew. Once both Sundaravalli and Amurthavalli accidentally met beautiful young Lord Muruga in the form of a great warrior. Thereafter they began to meet him frequently and their friendship turned into love affair. Unable to curb their attraction on the warrior, one day both of them went to Lord Vishnu and pleaded for his approval to marry the warrior even without knowing who he really was. Lord Vishnu acted innocently and posed as if he was against their proposal to get married with an unknown warrior, but finally agreed to their request and approached Lord Muruga who was waiting for an opportune time to annihilate Sooran.
Initially Lord Muruga turned down the proposal and put two conditions. He wanted them to shed their present body and take rebirth- Amudavalli in Devaloga and Sundaravalli in Bhoologa and wait there till he reached out to them at an appropriate time after completing his mission. If they agreed to his proposal, then as symbolic gesture he would open his soul to them so that they can have him as their heart mate as if they are married to him informally before taking rebirth. He promised that once his mission gets completed he would himself reach out to them and marry them formally in their rebirth. They accepted the proposal and promised to take immediate rebirth and wait for him.
As the act of rebirth began, Parasakthi ensured that special divine energies imbibed in them were merged with the energies of Lord Muruga when they married him informally in order to give him the additional strength needed to annihilate Sooran. Even Lord Muruga was unaware of it. Already the third energy Goddess Jyothi remained merged with Lord Muruga in the form of Vel. Thus Lord Muruga was made ready to annihilate Sooran with the combined energies of Goddess Valli, Goddess Deivaanai and Goddess Jyothi.
Once Lord Muruga married them informally at heart, both Sundaravalli and Amurthavalli vanished and took rebirth. Events turned fast and Amudavalli took birth in Devaloga where Lord Indira adapted her as his daughter and entrusted the task of bringing her up to his royal elephant Airavatham. Since she grew in the care of Elephant Airavatham she got the name Devasena i.e. brought up by one of the guards (sena) of Devaloga (deva). In Tamil she was called Deivaanai (meaning Divine elephant’s daughter).
Simultaneously Lord Mahavishnu wasted no time to manifest on earth to redeem a curse from Lord Indira which was meant to facilitate the manifestation of Goddess Valli. As he took the form of a saint and sat in penance in a dense forest area, without the knowledge of Lord Vishnu, his consort Goddess Lakshmi too took the form of a deer and stayed at a distance guarding her husband who was sitting in tapas. At the same time Sundaravalli too came there in invisible form and waited for an opportune time to get birth from Lord Vishnu and Goddess Lakshmi. In the midst of tapas when the saint opened his eyes, mesmerized with the beauty of the deer he gazed at her with lust thus causing the deer to instantly conceive, reason being the rays of lust from the saint la Mahavishnu intruded into her body. Waiting for such an opportune moment invisible Sundaravalli quickly merged her soul into the lust rays and entered into the body of Goddess Lakshmi who was in the form of a deer. The merger of lust rays turned into a female child which instantly fell into a bush. Thus the infant Goddess Valli was born in earth without staying in the womb of Goddess Lakshmi.
No sooner Goddess Valli was born, Lord Vishnu was relieved of the curse and Goddess Lakshmi too took her original form. Both left the child lying in a bush and returned to Vaikund. The name of the place where the child lay was called Valli kuzhi. In Tamil Valli meant ‘ sweet yam ’ and kuzhi the pit. By chance Nambirajan, a hunter saw the abandoned baby, took her with him and brought her up in his house with great care. Thus Goddess Kathayee first took birth in earth as Goddess Valli.
When she grew, as per the custom of the hunter tribes to keep the marriageable girls engaged from getting distracted, she was sent to the millet field to guard the crops against the hunting birds and other animals. She was called Valli since she was found in the pit of sweet yam (Valli kizhangu). The custom of the hunter tribe was to address the marriageable girls guarding the fields as Ayee (meaning tribal woman) and as days passed, Goddess Valli too began to be addressed as Katha aayee i.e. the one who guarded their millet field. This is how Goddess Valli got the name Goddess Kathayee much later.
Once both Goddess Deivaanai and Goddess Valli were born, Lord Muruga engaged himself in the act of annihilation of the soul of Soorasimman. After completing his mission, several interesting events with divine fixed drama transpired fast and at the end of the drama Lord Muruga got married both Goddess Deivaanai in Devaloga and Goddess Valli on earth as she was in human form living with the hunter tribe .
Goddess Valli becomes Goddess Kathayee
As said earlier, Lord Muruga had to stay in Bhoologa as Gnana Sakthi (Power of Wisdom) along with his consorts Kriya Sakthi (Power of Action for the path of emotions & passion) and Iccha Sakthi (Power of Will for the path of spirituality) to transform the humans during the emergence of Kaliyuga. While Goddess Deivaanai continued to stay with Lord Muruga boosting his divine energies along with that of hers, Goddess Valli as Iccha Sakthi traveled across the universe to sit in temples either with the Lord or alone in sanctums to activate the minds of humans to bring them under the shield of Lord Muruga who was to protect them from the ill effects of Kaliyuga. One such temple where Goddess Valli enshrined herself for such a cause was Sithadi Kathayee temple. She knew well that unless the ignorance of the humans is shed and they surrendered to Lord Muruga, the disastrous effects of Kaliyuga will cause immense tragedy in their life. Though Goddess Valli manifested in different parts of Universe in different forms she was continued to be revered only as Goddess Valli except in Sithadi where she ensured that her form and appearance was much different and devotees would worship her in the name Goddess Kathayee.
Reasons are plenty to believe that Goddess Valli may have travelled to Sithadi from Valli Malai and stayed there in the form of Goddess Kathayee in human form till she returned to Devaloga along with Lord Muruga. The resemblance and style of the headgear and style of holding a flower in right hand of Goddess Valli malai Goddess Valli with that of Goddess Sithadi Kathayee indicates that the Goddess must have stayed in these two places in the same form and style before shedding her body in Sithadi. When she shed her human body, she must have ensured that her human body got buried in land to turn into granite stone over the years carrying the same image in which she lived to be traced out centuries later to get enshrined in Sithadi temple. The reason for emphatically saying so stems from the fact that while the idols of Goddess Valli enshrined in the sanctums in each and every temple established both in agamic and non agamic manner, maintain reasonably the same agamic style of image as stipulated for her image form in the Shilpa Shasthras, where as in Sithadi temple alone astonishingly the granite stone idol of Goddess Valli reflects the human form of Goddess Valli- portraying three head gears without crown on her head. Also None of the temple history tells that the idol of Goddess Valli enshrined in their temples were retrieved from somewhere in original image form as enshrined in their temples.
……………Continued-4