Iravatheswarar temple or Airavatheswarar Temple; Mrithyunjesarar temple - Iravasthanam - Kanchipuram

Iravatheswarar temple or Airavatheswarar Temple; Mrithyunjesarar temple - Iravasthanam - Kanchipuram

As we all know, Kanchipuram is one the main temple town in Tamilnadu like Kumbakonam and it is splitted into Siva Kanchi and Vishnu Kanchi. As name suggests, Siva Kanchi consists of Siva temple which are also called as Padal Petra sthalam and Vishnu kanchi consists of Perumal / Vishnu temples and infact out of 108 Divya desams 20+ are based in kanchipuram and it shows the signifiance of this temple.

Kanchipuram is also one of the seven puniya sthala in India as per Garudapuranam. The places like Ayothya, Mathura, Haridwar, Varanasi, Avanthika, Dwakara and Kanchipuram are considered as Mokstha sthala where we get liberation from cycles of birth

Kanchipuram has been ruled by sevaral people and prominent of them are Pallavas followed by Cholas. Infact, Pallavas had Kanchi as their capital. Kanchi is referred by Tirunavukkarasar as a boundless wisdom – Kalviyil Karayiladha Kanchi Managarm and beauty city – Nakareshu Kanchi - by great poet Mahakavi Kalidas.

This temple Iravatheswarar or Airavatheswarar is located right next to Railway station. As I have been born and brought up in Siva Kanchi and this place is very close to my house. Infact in my childwood days we used to play in this area without knowing the significance. This temple was almost in depleted state during those time with full of trees and plants.

Recently 5 - 6 years back when i visited I fould this temple has been taken under the control of Indian Archealogical group and hence was intersted to visit. The areas has been cleaned and temple is being maintained with Priest regularly.  SwethaKulam is the sacred Theertha of the temple.

This temple seems to be built between 6 - 8th century by Pallava king Narashimavarman II alias Rajasimhan. The significance of the temple is circular goppuram or vimana which is considered as splendid architectural work. This temple is considered as minor siva temple and the main entrace do not have any gopuram like typical south indian temple, either it was never constructed or depleted with time for which no records available.

Significance of this temple is that Markandeyar had workshipped lord Siva here he got the boon of not becoming old at any time of his life in the earth and he will be reach adobe of heaven only when he decides. Hence this temple is referred as Iravatheswarar which means there is no death until we wish for it. To continue this legacy and importance, Ayush homa for kids under 5 years of age are done in this temple. Temple has only 2 major locations. One Nandi with in smaller vimana right infront of Lord Siva and then need to get into few steps to reach the bigger shrine where Lord Siva is there to grace his devotees. Legend also goes like Sages reached out ot Lord Brahma for life longitivity and he advised the sages to go to Kanchi and workship Lord Siva, as per this guidance, all the sages visited Kanchi and installed siva linga and got their boon, hence this place is also Iravatheswarar or Iravasthanam / Iravasthalam

The lord Siva is referred as Mrithunjeswarar and the temple is referred as Mrithyunjewsarar / Mrityunjeshwarar temple - Iravasthalam which means no death till we wish for it.

The temple is open from 6.00 a.m. to 11.00 a.m. and from 4.00 p.m. to 8.00 p.m.

Thiruvengadu - Swetharanyeswarar Temple , Budhan Parihara Sthalam , Agora murthy, Adi chidambaram

Thiruvengadu - Swetharanyeswarar Temple , Budhan Parihara Sthalam , Agora murthy, Adi chidambaram

Thiruvengadu temple is located near Srigazhi on the banks of river cauvery. This is one among the many temples from chola desam located on the banks of river Cauvery.Swetharanya means white forest. This temple is famous for Budhan / Budan bagavan and anyone who takes a holy dip in front of the tank of Budhan bagavan will get rid of all his dosha related to Budhan. Wednesday is the auspicious day for visting this temple to get rid of Budhan Dosham.

The legend goes like there lived an asura named Marutvasura who did a penance to lord Brahma and got his powers. With his powers he started to torture sages and people, when everyone went to Lord Siva, he requested Lord Nandi to fight with Marutvasura and win him. Upon request, Lord Nandi went and fought with him and won him. However the assura did not end there, he did further more strong penance towards Lord Brahma and got his powers again, When Lord Siva sent again Lord Nandi, this time Lord Nandi was not able to get over him and he got hurt. This angered Lord Siva and he himself came here and appeared as Agora Murthi and opened his third eye to kill the demon. There is tree at the exit of lord Siva where this event took place.

The main deity is called as Swetharaneyeswarar and Lord Parvathi is called as Sri Brahma vidyambigai. This temple has been visited and sung by all 4 Nayanmars namely Appar , Sundarar, Manikavasagar and Thirugnasambandar. This is one of the main padal petra sthalam and it is also 51st sakthi pedam. Here lord Siva exposed 9 dance folds in the form of omen. This is the birth place of Pattinathar adigal or Thiruvengadar. He also got his siva deekshai in this temple and attained siva feet in Thiruvotiyur chennai.

Sun god, Moon god, Indra , Iravatham , Agni and budan all workshiped lord Siva here, It is also called as Adi chidambaram as Lord Siva did his first dance step here before in Chidambaram.

Inside the temple, we can also see a place where Lord Parvathi referred as Pillai Iduki Amman. When Thirugnana sambandar came here, for everystep he found siva ligam appearing, seeing this he called Amma and Lord Parvathi came and took him and hence it is referred as Pillai Iduki Amman.

Lord Budhan workshiped lord Siva here and got into Navagraha status and hence whoever workships lord Siva here will get rid of their doshas and grow in their career, get bright eductation etc. Anyone struglling with nervous trouble will also get rid of it if they visit and do pooja to Lord Budhan, He likes green color, hence there is a request from temple management to devotees to go over 17 pradakshanas , light 17 lamps and put green cloth to Lord Budhan to get his blessings.

Inscriptions in these temple refers the donations done by King Aditya chola and Rajaraja chola. This temple is considered as holy as Kasi temple. This temple has 3 teerthams namely agni theertham, chandra theertham and surya theertham and it is beleived that it was created by Lord Siva.

Thirupampuram Temple Paampuranathar , Seshapureeswarar, Urakapuram

Thirupampuram Temple Paampuranathar , Seshapureeswarar, Urakapuram

This is less known but mostly powerful RahuKetu dosha nivarthi sthalam. This is one of the 276 padal petra sthalam and ranks 59th among all.
This is located on the way towards Karaikal from Kumbakonam, there will be board on the side of the road which leads to a single lane road that reaches the temple.

This temple is almost 3000 years old and beleived to be renovated by Kulothunga cholan and other chola kings like Rajarajan, Rajendran, Vijayalaya cholan, Sundarapandiyan etc

This temple is placed in the straight line to Sri Kalahasti.

Also it is beleived that whoever workships here, will get rid of all their rahu ketu dosha. This temple is placed above all the temples like Thirunegeswaram, Srikalahasti, Kizhperumpallam , Nagoor as it has all of the features of these temples together. Also Main deity lingam is formed as panchamuga lingam facing east and Parvathi devi is referred as Vandar kuzhali.

Legend goes like once Lord Vinayakar was workshipping his father, adisheshan took it to his pride as the workship is for him as he was on the neck of lord Siva, this angered lord siva and cursed Adhiseshan. To get rid of this curse, Adisheshan , Karkodan and other snakes visited the siva temples starting from Mahasivarathiri till their curse was removed. They visited Kumbakonam Nageswarar temple in the morning, Thirunageswararm in the afternoon , Thirupampuram in the evening and Nagoor Naganathan temple in the night.

They repeated this everyday till their curse was removed. This place has sevaral snakes however none of the snakes bites people, Every sunday, Tuesday and Friday people can feel the fragrance of Thazhampoo and Jasmine. Once when Sivachariyar opened the main deity door, he found a snake was on the linga like garland and it left once the sivachariyar opened the door, however it left its snake skin like garland on both Siva Linga and Parvathi Devi. This is so rare and auspicious and a picture was taken and placed in the temple.

Lord Brahma and sage Agasthiyar had said to be workshiped on this temple. Pooja for Rahu Ketu dosha is being performed in this temple to get rid of their dosha and sins and this pooja is done exactly during the rahu kalam time of everyday and the pooja cost is only Rs 250. People have to be atleast 30 mins earlier to get the things done before Pooja.

There is also theertha in front of the temple. Vanni maram is the sthala virusham. This temple has been visited by Thirunavukarasar, Thirugnanasambandar and Sundarar in devarams.

Thirugnanasambandar referred this temple as Pampura Nanagar (பாம்புர நன்னகர்).  Arunagirinathar has also visited this temple. There is also a saying that Elephant work shipped temple as Thiruvanaikal, Ant work shipped temple as Thiruerumpur and Snake work shipped temple as Thirupampuram ( ஆனை தொழுத தலம் திருஆனைக்கா எனவும், எறும்பு தொழுத தலம் திறு எறும்பூர் எனவும் வழங்கப்படுவதுபோல, பாம்பு தொழுத இத்தலம் திருப்பாம்புரம், “பாம்புரம்” எனப் பெயர் கொண்டது). 

Marudeeswarar temple - Thiruvanmiyur Chennai

Marudeeswarar temple - Thiruvanmiyur Chennai

This is one of the ancient temples and also part of 276 padal petra sthalam. This temple is located on near the beach on the ECR road of Chennai.
This is one of the temples where we have suyambu lingam and it is just about 2 feet tall.

The siva lingam here is called as Marudeeswarar means who has provided medicinal value to cure all illness. There is a strong beleif that visitng this temple will cure any kind of illness that people go through. Parvathi is called as Tiripurasundari and resides in a separate mandapam adjacent to Lord Marudeswarar.

This temple has been visited and sung by both Appar and Thirugnanasambandar.

This temple has been visited and prayed by several sages like Valmiki, Sage Agasthiya, Lord Brahma, Indira, Kamadenu , Lord Rama, Brigu Maharishi, lord Yama and many more. This temple has entrances on both east and west side and both have 5 tier gopurams. The one located on the ECR road is the west side gopuram which has just 1 gate entrance while the east side one has 3 gate entrances.

There are two version of history around the visit of Sage Valmiki, one version states that sage valmiki visited this place to get rid of his sins that he did as a robber and was blessed by Lord Siva, other version, Sage Valmiki wanted to get rid of his mortal body and attain salvation, reaching this place , he worked Lord Siva, who appeared in front of Vanni tree (sthala virusham) and blessed him and provided Salvation. In either versions, Lord Siva wanted the name of this place in memory of his devotee and named it as Thiruvalmikiyur, however this turned out to be as Thirvanmiyur in current trend, still there is a place called Valmiki nagar in this area. Very close by to this temple, there is another temple for Sage Valmiki.

Also once Sage Agasthiyar was suffering from stomach pain and workshiped lord Siva here who again appeared in the marriage form with Goddess Parvathi under Vanni tree and provided medicinal steps to cure his pain, Sage Agasthiyar also requested and got the knowledge of all the medicinal herbs that cure illness, hence the main deity Lord Siva is called as Marudeeswarar.

Divine cow visted this place and did milk abhishekam everyday to get rid of her sins and hence the lord is also called as Palvanna nathar.Lord Rama, Hanuman have visited this place while coming in search of Sita, Lord Brahma visited this place and workshiped Leord Siva and also built the temple tank. Lord Yama visited this place to get rid of his sins that he did with Markandeyar and was blessed here by Lord Siva.

This temple has several history and hymns sung by Appar and Thirugnanasambandar. Temple also has references in other temples like Kapaleeswarar temple which shows the history. King Rajendra chola visited this temple multiple times during his rule and donated several things for the temple. Inscriptions of this are found in the temple that goes back to 11th century.

Sage Arunagirinathar visited this temple and sung hymns on Lord Murugar in Thirupugazh compilation during 16th century.

Only Siva temple that is seen facing west, while Tirupurasundari goddess faces south and both Lord Vinayakar and Murugar face east,

Main mantapam has status of 63 nayanmars , Bairavar, Lord Vishnu, Natarajar , Vinayakar , Gajalakshmi inside the main mandapa prakaram.

Temple follows traditional aru kala pooja and Panguni festival is celebrated here in grandeur

This temple is located on the ECR road and easily accessible within the city. All the three temples, Kapaleeswarar in mylapore , Thiyagarayar in Tiruvotiyur and Marudeeswar in Thiruvanmiyur forms the trinity temple for the Chennai city. 


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Nachiyar Koil - Thirunarayur / Thirunaraiyur - Kal Garudan

Nachiyar Koil - Thirunarayur - Kal Garudan 

Nachiyar koil is one of the main divya desams for lord Perumal, out of 108, this is considered as 14th divya desams for Lord Vishnu / Perumal. The significance of this temple is Nachiyar Thaiyar gets preference first before Perumal which is very rare and unique in divya desam temples of lord Perumal.

Temple is located on the outskirts of Kumbakonam in a place called Thirunarayur, which has now become more of Nachiyar Koil. Temple name is Sri Srinivasa Perumal koil, however it is more known as Nachiyar Koil or Kal Garudan Koil.

Legend goes like Sage Medhavi  who lived in this place prayed to Maha Vishnu to have Mahalakshmi as his daughter, Based on his prayers, he found a beautiful girl child under vanjula tree and named her as Vanjulavalli and brought her up. Lord Vishnu took Garuda's help to fly in search of Mahalakshmi, Garuda was able to locate Mahalakshmi at Sage Medhavi's house and indicated the same to Lord Vishnu, Lord Vishnu took five forms and visited Medhavi's house and he was served with food by Vajulavalli, after food, when Vanjulavalli was pouring water to wash hands, Lord Vishnu held her hands, when she cried for help, Sage MEdhavi came there and he saw all five forms of Vishnu become one and Lord Vishnu gave him his darshan and asked vanjulavalli to get married to him. Sage agreed to this and asked for boon that his daughter should get preference in this place and that tradition is still being held. Any neivedyam goes to Lord Nachiyar first and then to Lord Srinivasa.

Mulavar has multiple names as Sri Vasudevan, Paripuranan, Nambi , Srinivasan, Vanjulavalli, Nachiyar. Other mulavars include Sri Prathubnan, Sri Langarshnan, Sri Purushothaman, Sri Brahma and Sri Anirudhan. All these forms together as mulavar and they are seen in marriage form.

Kal Garudan which is another famous in this temple has been located just outside mulavar sanidhanam. Since Lord Garudan helped Vishnu to locate this place of Mahalakshmi, Lord gave a boon that he will get equal prefernce in this temple. The legend goes that the sculpture was frustrated to make this Garudan which was done using Saligramam, as the Garuda kept flying away, he threw the stone on the Garuda which got hurt and started to give the pose. Miracle here is , during the Vaigasi and Marghazhi utsavam Kal Garudar is carried out in precession. While only four people are needed to carry the idol of Garuda out of the shrine, it multiples to 8, 16, 32, 64 and 128 people when the image is taken outside the temple. The weight of the idol remains the same when carried by 4 people and stays the same when carried outside by 128. Only supernatural force is acting on that idol when 4 people carry, if we replicate the same idol somewhere else, 128 people are required to lift. On the way back only 4 people are required to carry the float in the decreasing order 128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4. The aspect is treated magical as drops of sweat are also observed on the image of Kal Garuda during the six-hour-long procession. During the festive occasion, Garuda receives honors from Srinivasa Perumal (presiding deity) in the form of dress and ornaments. Jewels and dress are also presented to Garuda by Ranganatha, the presiding Vishnu form of Srirangam Ranganthaswamy Temple. It is also noted that Garudar travels slow while Nachiyar in swan moves faster and first to bless the procession followed by Srinivasa Perumal in Kal Garudar.

Thirumangai Alwar has written one hundred hymn on this particular temple, this is the 2nd temple where Thirumangai alwar written 100 plus hymn after Perumal temple in Thirukannapuram. He describes that he found the same beauty of Tirumala Venkatesa Perumal in this temple " தேன் கொண்ட சாரல் திருவேங்கடநாதன்னை நான் சென்று நாடி திருநாரையூரில் கண்டேனே ".  It is believed that Pancha Samskara , a religious initiation done to Thirumangai alwar in this temple. This temple is referred as sidhi shetra where sages got liberation from earth. Vardaraja perumal temple in Kanchipuram is referred as Athigiri , Tirupathi as seshagiri and this place in Thiruraiyur is referred as suganthagiri.

It is beleived that this temple was built by Kochenganan cholan in 3rd century, an early chola king during sangam period, it is also beleived that while he is strong devotee of Shiva and built 70 temples for Lord Siva, the only Vishnu temple that he built was this. Apparantly, it is believed that Vishnu came in his dreams to build this temple.

Temple follows rituals of aru kala poojai. Earlier there used to be 2 Garuda's who used to fly during the neivedya time to take the offerings.

In  18-Jan-99, both attained Vaikundam near sthala virucham.

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