Story of Rock Fort
The story of the temple at Rockfort in Tirchy district in Tamil Nadu is interesting
Ravana was the king of Lanka (present day Srilanka). He was a learned scholar. But at one time he kidnapped Sita, the wife of Rama.
Ravana’s brother, Vibhishan told him many times that this was wrong, but Ravana refused to listen. Hence, Vibhishana in order to establish Dharma fought along with Rama against Ravana. Rama with the help of Vibhishan, Sugreeva, Hanuman (Bajrangbali) and Jambhavan the monkeys of Kishkinda and the bear clan of Jambhavan defeated Ravana. After Ravana’s death, Rama crowned Vibhishana as the king of Lanka.
Rama returned to Ayodhya and was coronated as king. (Coronation is like a swearing in ceremony.) In appreciation of Vibhishana’s help to win the war against Ravana, Rama gave him a statue of Vishnu as a gift. This statue had been with Rama’s family for many generations and was venerated by all Rama’s ancestors. Rama told him that it was an ancient and sacred statue. He also told Vibhishan that under no circumstance should he place the statue on the floor. Vibhishana thanked Rama and left for Lanka.
Vibhishana started flying towards Lanka with the Vishnu statue in his hand. Even though Vibhishana was a good guy the Devas were worried that an asura had the powerful statue. They requested Ganesha to help them.
Vibhishan was going to Lanka with the statue and was crossing the river Cauvery in TamilNadu. He wanted to take a dip in the sacred river. But he did not know what to do with the statue.
Just then, he saw a cowherd boy standing nearby and requested him to hold the statue. The boy agreed that he will not keep it down. Once Vibhishana got into the water, the boy kept the statue on the banks of the Cauvery.
Vibhishana finished his bath and found that the statue was kept on the ground. He couldn’t find the cowherd also. He tried lifting the statue and couldn’t This made him angry with the cowherd boy.
He saw Vinayaka in the form of a cowherd standing with a mischievous smile. He wanted to punish the boy and went towards him. Seeing this, the boy started running. Vibhishana gave chase. The boy ran on top of the hillock nearby and sat there. Vibhishana tried to punish him and Ganesha revealed himself.
Vibhishana felt sorry for his actions and apologised. Ganesha gave him his blessings and sent him to Lanka. Ranganatha also blessed him and said that he wanted to stay on the banks of the Cauvery.
Ganesha is considered an obstacle remover and we should his blessings before we start any work.
Ganesha loves food and his favourite dish is sweet momos (modhaks). Ganesh Chathurthi is celebrated joyously once a year. The state of Maharashtra in India has a grand celebration spread over ten days.
Some of the famous Ganesha temples in the country include the Siddhi Vinayak temple in Mumbai, Dagdhuseth Halwai temple in Pune, Pllayarpatti and Rockfort temple in TamilNadu, Kanipakkam temple in Andhra, Madhur Vinayagar temple in Kerala, Ranathampore Ganesh Temple in Rajasthan and Ganesh Tok temple in Assam.
