A Trip to my native..
Last weekend, I took a much needed break from the regular work/sleep routine by making a visit to our home town – Mayiladuthurai. It was a last minute decision to attend the Kumbabishegam (well, what would you call that in English.. hmm.. may be Temple Warming/renovation ceremony) of the temple that is considered to be the place of worship of our Grandfather (and his forefathers). The temple named Panangudi Mariamman Koil is located in Nalladai Village which is about 20 Kilometers from Mayiladuthurai town. My Grandfather hails from a remote village named Koththangudi which is about a Kilometer from the temple.
The best thing about the tour was that the entire generation (even the future one – my 6 month old) of the family got together and had good time apart from taking the blessings of the God. Once the Kumbabishegam was done, we went to Kothangudi (first time in my life) wanting to catch a sight of the Agraharam and the temples in and around it. Unbelievable to imagine that my forefathers lived there. Infact, a lot of people have migrated to the towns and metros (including ours 
).
This site is supposed to be the place where my forefathers lived (there was a house then). Nothing left now, not even the ownership of the land. Infact, out of the 6 odd houses in the Agraharam, just one or two are occupied by Brahmins. The place though is well surrounded by Farm lands and Ponds with more dogs than Human beings (based on what I saw on that day).
And here is our Family in front of the Shiva temple in Kothangudi. We rejoiced worshiping the God by performing the Poojas, Harathi, Naivedhyam etc. ourselves. This was the highlighted of our tour for me. A very brief but satisfying tour overall..
I’m Ramamurthy, grandson of K.S.Rajagopal Iyer(Kothangudi). Currently i am residing at Hyderabad. I also attended kumbabishegam. I still remember Mr.Bala. I suppose that he’s the brother of Ms.Baby who was my tution teacher. Still i remember sundrambal patti. The only brahmin family at kothangudi is mine. I can be contacted at Cell: 9885734708.
Hi,
Im Ajay and come from a family of Kerala Iyers (Palakkad Iyers). We are settled in Kerala for the past 100 plus years. e came to know from an old diary of my grandfather’s that we hail from a Panangudi Village in TN. I believe there is a Panangudi near Sivagangai, one in Nagapattinam and one in Mayiladuthurai. We are not sure which of these Panagudis is our native. If it would be any help, we belong to Vismaitra Gothram, Could you pl. ask any of teh leders yopu know and help us.
Mr.Ramamurthy,
Thanks for the information. I have passed on your details to my relatives by email.
Ajay,
Thanks for stopping by. Will enquire my relatives and mail you.
Hello sir, I am Suresh. I am the great grand son of K.S.Rajagopal Iyer. My mother is a grand daughter to K.S.Rajagopal Iyer. My father is also a grand son to Rajagopal Iyer, who is working in P.T.I. We came to know by K.S.Ramamurthy who is also grand son to Rajagopal Iyer and he is my uncle. My phone number is 044-22236239, and my phone number is 9884155871.
Our family also belonged to Panangudi/kothangudi where, I am told an ancestor (musician singing bhajans too) was a priest in a temple. The family shifted to Trivandrum and my father’s (Advocate S Vaidyanatha Ayyar) grandfather Vythibhagavathar settled in Alleppey. We are smartha Vadama brahmins.
email umasaras@gmail.com
tel 044-22445973 or cell 9444262262
I am K.S. Krishna Moorthy (Known as Chittu-If in doubt ask Our Teacher Smt. Baby or his husband Sri. Sankara Iyer of Sembanar Kovil), S/O K.R. Srinivasan (2nd Son) and a proud grand son of Kothangudi Subramanian Rajagopala Iyer but popularly known as KSR.
My grandpa was a great man and I can not emulate him even after 100 re-births.
I believe that the photograph of the temple on the background of the family is Agadeeswarar Temple in Kothangudi Agraharam that was constructed by our grandfather in the late 50’s and the Kumbabisikem was done Mahaperiyaval Kanji Kamkotikal Chandrashekara Saraswati Swamigal.
Infact the Kumbabisikem you are referring is about is Panangudi Mariyamman temple our Family God for which our grand pa dedicated a silver kavacham in late 60’s.
But the Kothangudi Temple (On the background) was renovated by my father K.R. Srinivasa Iyer still a resident of the same house in Kothangudi Agraharam (1 st house) and the 2nd Kumbabishekam was performed by my father in the year 2002.
From the photographs I can not recollect anything because there is one more Rajagopla Iyer in our own Agraharam known as MR.
From the photograph I can recollect only 3 names.
1. Sundarambal Patti
2. My Guru Baby Teacher
3. A name Siva Raman.
I will be grateful to each one of you in the photograph to reveal your relation ship with the individual in the photograph so that I can recollect the old great memories as well as an opportunity to know the 2nd and 3rd generations.
I am residing in Dubai and I request you to provide the contact details since it will be a pleasure to talk to the young kids from KOTHANGUDI
Thanks a lot
Kothangudi Srinivasan Krishnamoorthy
K.S. Krishnamoorthy
00971-50-8523 406
0091-44-2819 3795
please reply
Expecting a fair reply
Ms. Umamaheswaran and Mr.K.S.Krishnamoorthy,
Thanks for dropping by. I am happy to be connecting with you through this blog. I am the grandson of late Sri.Kothangudi Srinivasa Iyer. Sorry that it I am not able to connect to any of the personalities you have mentioned. I am sure however, my parents and uncles (seen in picture) will be able to identify. I’ll pass on this info to them.
Btw, my uncle Mr.D.Arunachalam is working on this temple renovation with Mr.Babu. Preliminary plans include fencing, bore well and renovation on “Murugan’s” sanctum sanctorum. Please let me know if you will be interested in joining this initiative.
Sathish Rajagopalan
My name is Ganesan. I’m the 4th son of Sri.Jayarama Iyer. Popularly known as Vincent Jayarama Iyer. I know Sri KSR, he visited our house in 95 Solaiyappa Mudali Street, Kumbakonam, Sri.KSR is lean built with a Kadukkan (in the ears) and chewing betal leaf.
My father passed away in 1992 at Kumbakonam. My mother Smt.Gnambal lives at Kumbakonam. Lots of our relatives live in Chennai. My eldest brother is Muthuswamy is in Muscat, next one Raman lives in Ahmedabad.
Good that we could get in touch with all!!