Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Pallavaram


It has an ancient Shiva temple belonging to Chozha period. The main deity here is Sri Agatheeswarar and Goddess Sri Aanandhavalli. This beautiful temple is one among the Navagraha temples of Chennai (or Thondai Mandalam) dedicated to Lord Sri Saneeswara Bhagavan. Sri Saneeswara Bhagavan is said to have worshipped Lord Shiva here. As Sri Saneeswara had been giving ill effects to people, he had gained Dhosham out of it. Sri Saneeswara Bhagavan, wanting to be relieved of his dhoshams, prayed Lord Shiva for help, worshipped Lord Shiva here and got relieved of his problems. Hence, Sri Sani Bhagavan here is believed to be Mangala Saneeswarar with no dhoshams or ill effects. People having problems because of Sani (Saturn), worship here to reduce the ill effects. This place is also called ‘Vada Thirunallaaru’. Sri Sani Bhagavan is facing west towards the main deity in the sanctum. This temple is also a Parihaara Sthalam for Raahu and Kethu.

Kunrathur has an ancient temple for Lord Shiva which is over 800 years old. The main deity is Sri Naageswarar and Goddess Sri Kamakshi. This temple was built by the famous poet Sri Sekkizhaar who wrote the popular ‘Periya Puranam’. Sekkizhaar was born in Kunrathur itself. Sekkizhaar built a temple for Lord Shiva at Kunrathur which is very similar to the Thirunaageswaram temple. He installed the deity (Shiva Lingam) with Naagaabaranam (snake as an ornament) around the Shiva Lingam and named the Lord as Sri Naageswarar. This temple is also popularly called as Vada Thirunaageswaram.

Kundrathur Murugan Temple
Lord Subramaniar is in a sitting posture along with 2 Goddesses by his side. As per the Hindu mythology, Lord Subramaniar stayed in the hill during his travel from Tiruporur to Truttanigai. This place is also known as South Thanigai since Lord Subramaniar is sitting in the direction of north, facing Thanigai. This is the only Murugan temple in Tamil Nadu where the God is sitting in the north facing direction. This temple was constructed by King Kulothunga Chola - II. The speciality of this temple is that Lord Subramaniar can be seen only with one Goddess at a time even though he is there along with both the Goddesses. The God cannot be seen with both the Goddess at the same time. If the God is viewed from one side he can be seen along with Goddess Valli and viewed from the other side, he can be seen along with Goddess Deivanai.

Airport Sandhi Amman Temple
Lord Sandhi Amman is a very powerful goddess and this is one among the ancient temple which is located inside Tirusulam Airport. Pray HER sincerely and SHE will bless and grant your request.

Tirusulam Siva Temple
This temple is said to have been built during the reign of Kulothunga Chozha, about 1000 years ago. Very beautiful temple. We went around 07.30 a.m. as usual, except archagar nobody was around.
Outside the temple praharam, you can find Simhugnar (photo attached) which is very rare. Even though archagar told me it is Sarabeswarar, to my knowledge it is Simhugnar only and I don’t want to disappoint him.

Sri Dhakshinamurthy here is also very unique. He is called as Veerasana Dhakshinamurthy, as He is seen sitting in the ‘Veerasana’ Posture, with his left leg folded and his right leg on the Muyalaka Asura.

There is another idol for Goddess inside the main sanctum itself just in front of the Moolavar. It is said that, during some invasion, the original idol of the Goddess was damaged by intruders and a new idol was made and installed outside the sanctum. The then priest got a dream, in which he was directed by the God himself to place the damaged idol next to the main deity itself. So, the Goddess which was originally there, found a place just next to the main deity Himself

Lord Ganapathi is seen as ‘Naaga Yagnopaveetha Ganapathi’, as he is wearing the Naagam (snake) as his sacred thread.

Sri Durga instead of standing on her legs rested on Demon king Mahishasura, standing on Lotus, which is very rare.