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. 


[ஸ்ரீ கிருஷ்ணார்ப்பணம்]

Location Map

                              

Thingalur - Chandra / Chandran GOD Parihara sthalam

Thingalur - Apputhi adigal - Chandran GOD


This is one of the 9 Navagraha parihara sthalam in Tamilnadu. This is located very close to Tanjavur, around 20 mins drive from Tanjavur or 45 mins drive from Kumbakonam. This is very small temple but powerful temple.

Main God is Siva as in anyother Navagraha temple and he is named as Kailasanathar and Thayar Parvathi as Periya Nayaki amman is residing very next to Lord Siva. Chandran has the temple just outside the main deity and has a separate shrine. Chandran in tamil is called as Thingal and hence the name Thingalur retained for the village.

It it still a village with rice as the main agricultural activity. Usually born babies will be fed with rice after 6 months and usually first rice or annaprasanam would be given in the temple and it is very famous in Guruvayurappan temple, the same ritual is also famous in this temple.
The babies are shown moon first and then cow before feeding their first rice. We usually see kids are shown moon while they are taking their dinner and it is not just for diversion but it has a spritual reason, Moon is shown as water god and cow shown as medicinal god so that even if kids get cold or fever it is been taken care.

This temple is believed to be constructed by Cholas sometime around 10-11th century and one of the 276 padal petra sthalam.

There was a famous merchan who lived in this city called Apputhi / Appoodi Adigal who had great respect on the name of Appar ( one the top 63 nayanmars). While he has not met Appar once, he became his devottee by mind, he did not even workship lord siva to the extend that he workshipped appar. The devotion was such that he named in sons as Elder(periya) Thirunavuakarasar and youger (chinna) Thirunavukarasar. He started to build water service, annadanam all other social activities in the name of Appar. When Appar came to this village he wondered on the services which were on his name and wanted to see Apputhi adigal, hearing this Apputhi adigal was very happy and requested his son to get banana leaves for Appar to provide food, unfortunately in the field, a snake bit the son and he was dead, while Apputhi adigal was heard about this, he did not worry but he was very much keen to take care of Appar who is visiting his house. When Appar visited and heard the incident, he did a padigam as below

and rightaway the son came back to life. Hence in this place till date even there is a bite from snake, the poison never gets into the entire body is a miracle. Anyone suffering from Chandran dosham should visit here and do the pariharam, peferably during chandra horai time.

currently the temple is being rennovated.

Temple timings are from 6 am to 12 pm and 4 pm to 8 pm
[ஸ்ரீ கிருஷ்ணார்ப்பணம்]

Location Map 

Sri Muktheeswarar temple - Athur, Kanchipuram

Sri Muktheeswarar temple - Athur, Kanchipuram

This is one of the old temple, it is beleived to be constructed somewhere 1500+ years earlier. This temple is located on the banks of palaru river. it is located in a peaceful place where there is no commercial disturbances.

It is beleived that this temple linga was identified by Mudhalam Kulothungan chozhan during his travel to Mamallapuram. Later Chola kings started to build this temple shrine by providing abundant funds.

Chokeesan Thirunilai ( therku raja gopuram in thillai , chidambaram natarajar temple)
 During the period of Koperunchingan the Athur Muktheeshwarar temple's revenue has been colllected and diverted to build the south raja gopuram
in Thillai ( Chidambaram Natarajar temple ). This inscription is seen in both Chidambaram and Muktheeswarar temple
This inscription alone shows the popularity and importance of this temple during those days.

This temple is still well maintained and peaceful. Temple has shrines for Lord Vinayaka, Amman , lord Murugar, Navagrahas.

The signifance of this lingam is that there is a thin line that runs across the bana lingam which is very rare in nature and the lingam is facing
east.

The other significance of this temple is of Jyesta devi facing straight of navagraha carrying two sons. The importance of lighting 3 or 5 or 9 lamps towards this devi on Saturday during 9 - 10.30 am is of significance as it erodes all bad omens. Also if we stay for 1 nazhigai or 24 mins in the main garbhagraham is important to get rid of bad / negative effects in life



Temple is 1 hr away from Chennai and 5 mins from chengalpet station. Share autos and local bus facilities are available. From bus stop it takes just 5 mins to reach the temple.

Image / Picture courtesy : dharsanam.com

Kanchi / Kanchipettu - Kailasanathar Perumal temple

This is one of the richest heritage temple in Kanchipuram. Built by Pallavas and one of the oldest temple in kanchipuram or shiva kanchi.

Lord Siva is in lingam form and it is big in size close to 10 feet. This temple is known for its richest architecture and currently under indian archaeological group.

Thought built by Pallavas in early 8th century, down the road aroudn 11th century when Cholas ruled entire south India , King Raja Raja Chola visit this place and stunned by its architecture and named this temple as Kachipettu Periya Thirukatrali

To come around Shiva lingam in the main sanctum, one has to go through a small opening by knell or crawl, after which we can walk straight and which coming out, again we have to bend and crawl to come out

Legend behind this is to describe human cycle, we born , crawl, kneel and then walk, again during end of the life we tend to get bend, again kneel crawl and ultimately vanish. Idea is to make people understand this

There is also saying that who goes through this will not have re-birth

Some of the pictures that depicts the architecture of this temple which was started by Raja Narashima varma and completed by Mahendra vanrman

[ஸ்ரீ கிருஷ்ணார்ப்பணம் ]

Surutapalli - Lord Siva Temple

Surutapalli is a small village very close to oothukottai. Just half a mile from Oothukottai, we can find this temple. This is one of the old temples and it is located just in the Tamilnadu - Andhara border and belongs to Andhra pradesh state.

This is one of the unique temple where we can find Lord Shiva in human form in the moolavar. He is called as "Pallikondeswarar."

Location :
The temple is located in Chennai - Tirupathi border through Oothukottai - Thada route. This is exactly 57 kms away from Chennai and it takes less than a hour and a half to reach this place. We can find ample car parking space inside the temple.

Temple timings are : 
6 AM - 12 PM and then 4 PM to 8 PM in the evenings.

This temple is very famous for Pradoshams.

Sthala History :

As name suggests, Suruta means ' in tired state' and Palli means 'lying down'. This temple was built by Harihara Bhuga king from Vijayanagara dynasty.During the old days , when Devas requested Siva to have a life without death, Lord Siva adviced them to churn the ocean to get amritham (nectar) which will give Devas a life without death. All Devas churned the ocean and during the process, first it came a poison
before nector. When seeing the poison, Lord Siva went and took that to save the entire universe, while doing so, Lord Parvathi went and stopped Siva from swallowing the poison, if Lord Parvathi have not done that, the entire world would have been destroyed. Since the poison was stopped at the throat, Lord siva became drowsy and rested in the lap of Lord Parvathi and selected Srutapalli as the place.

When heard about this, all the Devas, other GODs and Saptharishi's rushed to see Lord Siva.
When Siva got up, he saw everyone and started to dance in happy mood, all the GODs, rishis and devas watched Siva dancing through the horns of Nandhi and hence Pradosham started.This temple is very famous for Pradoshams.

About temple :

While entering the temple, you will be welcomed by a huge size Nandi even before the Gopuram. Though Siva is the main deity, first we need to visit and get the blessings of Lord Maragadambikai. Since Lord Parvathi stopped Siva from drinking the poison, Lord Maragadambikai needs to be visited first. Usually in Siva temples the Goddess will be on the left side, however in this temple Goddess Maragadambikai will be on the right side.

Also this is the only temple where we will not find any balipeedam before the Goddess. Lord Vinayakar and Lord Murugar will be on the outside of Goddess Maragadambikai

Behind this, we can find Kala Bairavar. On the right side of Valmikeshwarar , we can find Lord Dampathi sametha Dhakshanamurthy. Clearly seen are sages, Patanjali and Vyagrapthar. The Lord, mounted on His bull mount is in a seated posture with one foot on Apasmasura and the other leg folded on a Yoga Pattai and embracing his Consort Gowri on a Rishaba Vahana.

                                                      For the above pic ( Courtesy : Hindu)

We can also find, Valmikeshwar, which is a suyambu lingam. History goes like, after Lord Rama defeated Ravanana and before going to Ayodhya , Lord Rama and Saint Valmiki prayed to Lord Siva who appeared as Suyambu lingam and hence the lingam has been named as Valmikeswarar.

The temple Pallikondeshwarar has been situated on the right side. Lord Siva can seen in a huge reclining position with Goddess parvathi. Also we can see Devas, Lord Brahma, Saptharishis, Vishnu and Indra waiting.

Since it is very close to Chennai, do plan to visit this unique temple and get the blessings