Story of Sri Ranganathar and Ucchi Pillayar

One of the most important temples on the banks of Kaveri is Sri Ranganatha Temple is in Srirangam, Tamil Nadu. It has a very interesting story linked to its evolution. As a part of Lord Rama’s coronation ceremony in Ayodhya, he gave away lavish gifts to all the attendees. Vibhishana who had abandoned his brother and surrendered to Rama without any expectation also was ready to leave to Lanka, when Rama called him and gave him a special gift. He gifted Vibhishana with the idol of Ranganatha which was also the family deity of Ikshvaku dynasty and considered as family wealth of the dynasty.

Vibhishana was overwhelmed on receiving such a valuable gift which was planning to establish in Lanka, his kingdom. However, Lord Ganesha was not of the opinion of letting Sri Ranganatha’s idol leaving India and he nicely executed his plan of retaining the idol at the banks of Kaveri, Tamilnadu and Bharat. He used Rama’s warning to Vibhishana to his favour. Rama had warned Vibhishana that the idol and Vimana should not be placed anywhere on the ground and that they should be carried directly to Lanka, failing which the idol and the vimana would get established at the first place he places them on the groud.

Lord Ganesha volunteered to hold the idol for Vibhishana, when he was filled with the desire of taking holy bath in the mighty River Kaveri, at the condition that in case Lord Ganesha no longer is able to hold the idol, he would call for Vibhishana three times for him to come and take the idol.

With Vibhishana agreeing to the condition, he handed over the idol to Lord Ganesha and proceeded to fulfill his desire. Lord Ganesha waited for the right opportunity and when Vibhishana had gone far into the kaveri swimming, Vinayaka called out thrice in quick succession. With Vibhishana failing to reach Lord Ganesha at the call of three, he placed the idol with vimana on the ground. As Lord had already warned, the idol with the vimana got firmly established there (which is now the Sri Ranganathar temple at Sri Rangam).

Vibhshana on return was angered for having lost the opportunity of taking Sri Ranganathar with himself to Lanka and in his outburst, he chased  Lord Ganesha to hurt him. Lord Ganesha played along and ran till he reached the top of the current Rock Fort Hill and sat waiting for Vibhishana. On reaching the top of the hill, exhausted Vibhishana gave a sharp knock on the head of Lord Ganesha as a vent to his frustration and Lord Ganesha revealed his true form. On realizing his error, he immediately apologized to Lord Ganesha. The Lord immediately forgave him and let him know that he received his great gift from Lord Rama as a reward for his genuine sacrifice with no desires. But, he lost the idol once the materialistic desires  (of taking a dip in the beautiful River Kaveri) took over him and seemed more important than taking Lord Ranganathar to Lanka without any stoppage.

However, as a consolation to the work executed by Vibhishana in carrying the Lord’s idol from Ayodhya to Srirangam, he had established the Lord’s idol facing Lanka and gracing it with his blessings. There seems to be dual meaning to the name “Ranganathar” (deity’s name). Arangam in tamil means a stage. One school of thought claims that since we are puppets in the hands of God for him this world is a stage, the deity has been named Sri Aranganathar and other school of thoughts says that a drama was conducted with Vibhishana as a puppet to establish this deity in South which was originally in Ayodhya (North India).

The place in which the Ranganathan deity was kept was later covered in deep forests, due to disuse and after a very long time, it was discovered when a Chola king chasing a parrot found the deity accidentally. He then established the Ranganathaswamy temple, Srirangam as one of the largest temple complexes in the world. Meanwhile, the Pallavas built the Vinayaka temple and the Thayumanaswamy temple, in the rock which Vinayaka used to escape Vibishana.

Reference – Compilation from Various religious stories and publications by different authorities (printed and website)

Mom's secret recipe on Pachai Moru Kuzhambu

PACHAI MORU KUZHAMBU

INGREDIENTS:

Dania leaves – 1 small bunch; green chilli - 2 or 3; coconut scraped – 1 laddle;

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp; salt – 1/2 tsp.;

Curd – ½ litre.

Grind the above ingredients except curd.

Churn the curd with ladle.

Add the grounded paste to it.

Mix it well.

Garnish with thinly cut coriander leaves and it is ready to eat. 

Recipe: Ganga RamMohan

Mom's secret receipe on Moru Kozhambu

MORU KUZHAMBU

INGREDIENTS:

Curd – 1 litre; Salt – 1 tsp; Coconut oil / Refined oil Curry leaves;

Vegetables-lady’s  finger,pumpkin, arbi   (any one)

Urad dhal or chana dhal  kunnukku 

For Grinding:

Dania – 2 tsp; Jeera – 2 tsp;  chana dhal – 11/2 tsp; rice – ½ tsp; Green chilly (med. Size) – 5 tsp; Coconut – ½;

PROCEDURE:

Grind the above ingredients & keep it aside. Cook the vegetables with salt.

In the meantime, churn the curd thick & keep it ready.

Remove the excess water from the veg. & add the paste , it should be slightly thin. Keep on stirring it. Add the curd. After 2 min. switch off the gas.

In  a pan add oil when it is hot add mustard seeds & pour it in Moru Kuzhambu

Now it is ready to serve.

Serve it hot.

Recipe by: Ganga RamMohan

Mom's Scret Lemon Rice Recipe

LEMON RICE

Ingredients

Rice – 1 cup; Water – 3 cups; Lemon – 3 Nos.; salt

Seasoning:

Til Oil- 1 laddle; Mustard – 1tsp; uld dhal – 11/2 tsp; Chana dhal – 11/2 tsp; Moongbali 1 tsp; (optional), cashewnuts – 6; hing, green chilli-3 nos.; curry leaves.

METHOD:

Cook the rice . Allow it to cool by adding ½ ladle Til oil to it.

In a pan pour rest of the til oil. When it is hot add mustard seeds,moongbali, uld dhal, chana dhal, c.nuts ,hing, haldi powder, g.chilli  & c.leaves. Add this  to the rice. Now add lemon juice, salt & mix well.

Lemon rice is ready to be served.Garnish with thinly cut coriander leaves.

Please remember not to heat the lemon rice. It will turn bitter in taste with an awful smell.

Recipe by: Ganga RamMohan

Mom's Secret Coconut Rice Recipe

COCONUT RICE

INGREDIENTS:

Rice – 1 Glass; Water – 3 glass; coconut scraped – 1 medium size;

Seasoning:

Mustard- 1 tsp; uld dhal- 11/2 tsp;  G. Chilli -4 med. Size; curry leaves; Hing – ¼ tsp; Cashewnuts -10; (optional); Salt – to taste.

METHOD:

Cook the rice. In a plate spread the rice, add 2tsp.ghee & coconut oil & allow it to cool.

Now in a deep frying pan add ghee or coconut oil 2 tsp.. When it is hot add mustard seeds when it starts spurting add uld dhal, c. nuts, green chilli, hing,  curry leaves & scrapped coconut fry for few min., add salt & transfer this to the rice in the plate & mix well.

It tastes good with chips & moorkulambu.

Serve it hot.

Recipe by: Ganga RamMohan

Geeting bored of cooking at home or eating out daily. What do you prefer?

Let us know. We will ease your daily battle with cooking food or eating out! Click below to answer the poll.


Free Online Surveys

Vegetarian Marinated Potatoes - Recipe

Incidentally, I cut too many slices of potatoes for making Potato Bajjis (Coated deep fried potatoes) and was stuck with them. Definite thought was that any more potato bajjis offered for snacks will be rejected on face by the father - daughter duo.

Thinking real hard and ofcourse "googling" for ideas, I came up with the thought of trying something new and that's how I ended up making something really delicious - Vegetarian Marinated Potatoes.

I piled up the sliced potatoes (apprx 250 gms) in a microwave bowl and added water to it, just enough to dip all the potatoes. Decided to add some salt to it to improve the flavour (if salt is added to the potatoes being boiled, the potatoes soaks the salt which adds on to its flavour).

While the potato was on its way getting half boiled, I added four spoons of butter to a hot pan and let the butter melt. Once the butter melted, I added four spoons of maida (or you can use all purpose flour) and roasted the flour till it turned pink. Next, I switched off the gas and let the roasted flour to cool down.

Meanwhile, I ground two onions (medium sized), two tomatoes, 8 pieces of red chili (you can substitute this with red chili power or red chili flakes in accordance to your taste), 1 teaspoon of rock salt (you can substitute this will table salt in accordance with your taste), two stems of coriander leaves, into a fine paste.

By the time paste was ready, the roasted flour had cooled. I put the gas on and added 50ml watery milk to the flour and stirred them together without lumps into white sauce. Once effervescence came up,  I added the tomato onion paste to the sauce and let them come to boil. When, the raw onion smell subsided, I added 50 ml milk (preferably with full cream), 50 gms of cheese and let them all form a thick paste.

By the time all this was ready, the potatoes in the oven were a little more than half boiled (just what I needed). I dipped all the potato slices in the red sauce (which we just finished preparing) and let them all settle down for 2 hours (this time could be as short as 30 mins if you are in a hurry but no more than 2 hours, else the smell will change). 90-100 mins of soaking will give the half boiled potatoes good time to soak the red sauce's flavour.

Then, I heated the pan and placed one slice of the potato dipped in sauce (along with the red sauce) and added some butter (you can substitute this with any kind of oil / butter depending on your taste and health requirement). If you are a health buff and would prefer to avoid oil, go ahead and try roasting the marinated potatoes without oil / butter and you will still like the taste.

Coming back, place the marinated slice of potato, alongwith with the red sauce on the pan, add a little butter / oil to shallow fry it. Place a few more slices of marinated potatoes to cover the available space in the pan. I shallow fried around 7 slices at a time. When one side is done (you can choose on whether you want is well done, done rare, mild), turn it around to shallow fry the other side.

Place the fried slices on a plate and garnish it with liquid cheese or mayonnaise and devour it!

My potatoes took 10 mins to get half boiled in microwave at 720 degree. It took me a minute to roast the flour, 4 mins to prepare tomato onion puree (including peeling of onion). Another 7 mins of preparing the paste. Since I boiled the potatoes and prepared the sauce at the same time, it took me around 12 mins to get this whole thing ready. Another 30 to 120 mins for potatoes to get marinated. But, I was lucky that that I didnt have to slice potatoes, add another 5 mins to your preparation time. Shallow frying 7 slices simultaneously took me 5 mins.

Once you get home from work, spend 15 mins to prepare the items (say around 6pm or 18 hours) and you can serve the starters along with dinner by 8 pm or 20 hours)!

Happy Cooking !

By Aparna