Navagraha temples
There are several temples independent or within the complexes of other famous temples dedicated to Navagrahas (9 celestial planets). For Hindus Navagraha is very important as they believe that the Navagrahas play a vary important role in one's life. Depending on the position of the Navagrahas, people experience all round prosperity, health, education, property and life partner etc. Similarly if the Navagrahas or some of them are in bad position/s the persons concerned will suffer from various problems regarding health, wealth and life situation etc. There are literature suggesting various appeasement rituals to pleas the lords controlling the Navagrahas to increase prosperity or to remove the difficulties due to the positions of the navagraha (9 planets).
Devipattinam Navapashana Navagraha Temple
There is a special temple dedicated exclusively for the Navagrahas in Tamilnad. The temple is near to the famous Rameswaram Sri Ramanatha Swamy temple. The Navagraha temple is known as Navapashanam temple. The temple is situate in Devipattinam village near Rameswaram in Ramanathapuram (Ramanad) District of Tamilnad. The specialty of this temple is that the 9 deities of the Navagrahas are installed in the sea near to the shore in the village. It is believed that the stone idols of the Navagrahas were installed by Lord Sri Rama to appease the Graha devathas (planetary deities) by fixing 9 stones (rock pieces) a few meters into the water of the sea near to the shore before he went to Lanka to wage war against the demon king Ravana in order to rescue his wife Sitha from the demon king. After installing the deities Sri Rama worshiped the Navagrahas installed by him along with Lord Siva for removal of the troubles from his life. It was not much known earlier may be due to the deficient conveyance facility and infrastructure facilities of the place as it is a very small village on the coastal area in Devipattinam. Now most of the devotees who come to the famous Rameswaram Temple also come here and worship the Navagrahas. The idols may not be visible at all times depending on the water level in the sea, the Bay of Bengal. During low level of water at low tides the idols will be clearly visible. Some of them very much above water level as the height of the stones are not identical. During the periods when water level in the sea is high the idols may not be visible as they are under water. There is a bathing ghat here close to the Thilakeswar Temple which is also known as Navagraha temple.This temple is dedicated to Lord Siva in the form of Thilakeswar with goddess Parvathy (known as Soundaryanayagi). There is also an idol of Goddess Durga with eight arms with weapons in each of the arms. The deity is worshipped with ellu - tila or gingelly seeds.
This is a very important center for performing Tarpan (offering of water with till seeds) to the ancestors.
The Navagraha Navapashana (also pronounced as Nava bhasanam) temple at Devipattinam is about 15 kms
from Ramanathapuram town. Buses going to Karaikudi stop at Devipattinam very near to the temple.
The water used to be very good. But now due to the greatly increased flow of devotees who come here to worship liter the place and the sea with garbage and is increasingly getting polluted as the days go by.
