Navagraha temples in chennai near porur-Vaidhyeeswaran Temple In Poonamalle- Sevvai Kshetram

Today(18/07/2010) there was a medical camp at Kanchipuram and enroute I stopped at the Poonamallee Vaitheeswaran koil. It is said to be a pallava temple and built with exquisite carvings. Like the one near Kumbakonam this is also a Navagraha ,Sevvai kshetram (Mars /Angarakan)
On the Chennai Bangalore highway branch off left at Saveetha Dental college and travel up to the Mount Poonamallee road. Take a right turn into poonamalle town. After about 1-1.5 kms you will reach the Bus stand and Sundar hospital on the right. A left turn here leads you directly into the temple south side.
The South Gopuram has interesting vigrahas of Siva, Vishnu, Brahma, Parvati, Subramanya and Ganesh. .There is a unique idol of the trimurthys 

There is a large outer Prakaram and a covered inner prakaram with a huge temple tank outside on the east.
(View of the inner prakaram showing the Ambal sannidhi in the foreground and Main sannidhi on the right)

The main deity is the Siva lingam( Vaitheeswaran) facing east and goddess Thayal nayaki has a separate sannidhi facing the south in the inner Prakaram . Just outside the Sivan sannidhi is the sannidhi for Sevvai (angarakan with a carving showing legs and a statue for palm tree) the Sthala Vriksha Thaazhi Panai Maram (Thazhi Palm),

There is a separate sannidhi for Subramanian in the inner prakaram ,Adi Sankara has installed three chakras next to this sannidhi (Shiva Chakra, Subramania Chakra, Sri Charka ) . Every pournami and Amavasya abhishekam is done for these chakrams  There are also separate exquisite vighrahas of Brahma, Dakshinamurthy, Durga on the wall of the Shivan sannidhi
There is special pooja for angaraka on Tuesdays. similarly the other speciality in this temple is during month of march , the rays of the sun falls on the sanctum sanctorum in the morning for about five days continuously. This is called as "surya pooja" or the worship of Shiva by Sun god. It lasts for about 5 or 6 mins every day during that five day pooja.
The another speciality in this temple near the East  gopuram  is "Viduthalai Shani"( freedom shani) that is here the Saneeshwara is standing separately facing east. In front of him both Nala and Damayanthi are standing and here is the place where Nala got relieved from Shani.
Thus this temple is connected to the navagrahas Sun, Shani (Saturn) and Sevvai(Angarakan/ mars)
The South Mandapam has exquisite carvings in the doorways There is also a samadhi for a siddhar inside the temple   in the outer prakaram which is marked by a lingam.