Sri Agashteeshwarar- Akhilandeshwari temple Nungambakkam- Chennai

 

On nungambakkam village road (valluvar kottam road)when you are proceeding away from Valluvar kottam towards Sterling road junction you will cross the police station on the right at that point on the left is the road leading to this old temple about 500 yrs old. It has a beautiful pond brimming with water and serene

View as you enter

View from the Back side of the pond  in front the temple entrance

Legend:

King Bommarajan who ruled this place once, got Sula disease ( a form of  fever where he was burning hot)and prayed to Perumal. Perumal  guided him to take bath in the Agastheeswarar temple tank and worship Shiva here. He did the same and got his disease cured. Goddess Akilandeswari has a separate shrine here next only to Thiruvanaikaval. At one corner of the temple tank is present the Swayambu amman Asalathamman.The amman temple is being rebuilt now

Actually king Bommirajan was a vaishnavite and he also built the perumal temple at nungambakkam which is on the other side of the road. Apparently it was all a single complex but the expanding city has swallowed up the temple complex  and separated the temples.

View of the gopuram

As you enter you can se the main praharam with a mandapam in front

 

This mandapam has beautiful paintings on the roof

They are all painted with Vegetable dyes

The main praharam has the Agastheeswarar sannidhi facing the east. Till recently I believe  there was a snake in attendance in the sannidhi !!. The base of the sivalingam has constant water percolating like in Thiruvanaikaval . When they tried digging up to 20 feet during the kumbabishekam they could not go to the base of the lingam and encountered water welling up ,and this has been led to a well nearby and the priest informed me that this is the source of water for the entire complex and the surrounding area also!!

The ambal sannidhi is to the right facing the south . Akhilandeshwari is in standing pose . The walls of the amman sannidhi have Iccha shakti, Gnana shakti and Kriya shakti as idols on all three sides .

The inner praharam has sannidhis for Vinayakar, murugan, the nayanmars appar, sundarar, manickavasagar and Thirugnanasambandar. The walls of the sannidhi has dakshina murthy, Sivan, Durgai . There is a separate shrine for Natarajar.

The south west corner has a ganapathy sannidhi seen as far left behind in the photo  below. In  the fore ground is the Anjaneyar sannidhi

Behind the main sannidhis are the sannidhis for murugan

The North side has many sannidhis as seen below

for lakshmi, durga, saraswathy, Vishnu, and bhairavar

The inside of the Gopura Vasal has Chandran and Suryan on either side and also interestingly a shrine for Agasthiyar and his wife Lopa mudra

There have been inscriptions found during renovation and is in old tamil (grantham)

There are also documents available from  the British period of 1700’s which have been engraved and kept here