KaliyugavardhanVazhum കലിയുഗവരദൻ വാഴും/അയ്യപ്പ ഗാനങ്ങൾ

 

The world-famous shrine in Kerala's Sabarimala is dedicated to the worship of Lord Ayyappa, who is also known as Manikandan/Manikanthan. The pilgrimage season has begun, and one will find thousands of devotees thronging the region to pay obeisance to the young boy, who chose to reside at the Sabarimala. The Devas had combined their powers to create Durga, who in turn killed Mahishasura for creating havoc. And to avenge the death of Mahishasura, Mahishi, his sister created ruckus in the universe. Once, while performing a penance, she pleased Brahma and was blessed with a boon which stated that only a child born to Shiva and Vishnu could kill her. Thus, Mahishi misused the blessing as she knew she had become invincible. But little did she know that the gods would outsmart her. Vishnu transformed into his Mohini avatar and united with Shiva to produce a child. And this child came to be known as HariHara Putra. Therefore, the main purpose of Ayyappa's birth was to eliminate Mahishi and help her attain Moksha.

King Rajashekhara of Pandalam and his wife were childless. One day, when the King visited the forest, he found an abandoned baby boy. The King took the baby to a sage who advised him to adopt it. Thus, the childless couple was blessed with a child, and he was raised like a prince.According to a legend, the Queen gave birth to a son, and soon after having a biological child, she started alienating Ayyappa. She was also against the King's decision to make Ayyappa his royal heir. Hence, to remove Ayyappa from her son's path, the Queen sent him to the forest on the pretext of asking him to get a tigress' milk to cure herself of a mysterious disease. The doting son left for the wood to follow his mother's instructions, but on his way, he came across Mahishi, the demoness. Thus, he served the main purpose of his birth by killing Mahishi. 

The Queen wanted to eliminate Ayyappa, and she was confident that the tigers in the forest would kill him. But he returned to the kingdom mounted on a tigress and several tigers in tow. After seeing him at ease in the presence of ferocious animals, the King and the Queen realised that Manikanthan was no ordinary human. He proved that he was a doting son to his parents but chose to decline the offer of ruling the kingdom. Instead, he aimed an arrow at the Sabarimala and decided to reside there.
 Ayyappan, also called Sartavu or Śāsta, in Hinduism, a deity who is always celibate, generally depicted in a yogic posture, with a bell around his neck. His most-prominent shrine is at Shabarimalai, in the southern Indian state of Kerala, where he is most popular, though the neighbouring states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka also house many Ayyappan temples. Ayyappan may bear a historical relationship to the tutelary deity Aiyanar of Tamil Nadu.

The most-public aspect of the worship of Ayyappan is the annual pilgrimage to Shabarimalai, in which only men, preadolescent girls, and postmenopausal women are allowed to participate. Prior to the journey, pilgrims are required to observe strict vows of celibecy and abstain from meat and intoxicants for a period of, traditionally, 41 days. Pilgrims climb barefoot to the hilltop where the shrine is located, and during the pilgrimage linguistic and economic differences among participants are minimized. A late Sankrit text describes Ayyappan as the son of Shiva and Vishnu (with the latter in his form as the enchantress Mohini). Abandoned by his parents with but a bell around his neck, he was adopted by a Pantalam king of Kerala, and, soon after, his divinity was recognized and a shrine erected to him. Other tales and songs in Malayalam and Kodagu describe his adoption by a local king. They focus on his later life, in which he grew to be a renowned warrior who first set out to defeat and was subsequently worshipped by the Muslim chieftain Vavar (to whom there is a shrine en route to Shabarimalai).