Manimangalam Temples a brief write up

History

Having been inspired by Kalki’s Sivagamiyin sabadham I was very keen to visit this place a small village near Sriperubudur and Tambaram. This is the place where the pallava king  Mahendravarma and later his son  Narasimha varma Pallava  (Ma mallan) along with his minister Paranjothi (also known as Siruseedan one of the nayammars round about 735 AD). defeated Pulakesi II of the chalukya dynasty and they proceeded to chase him as far north as VATAPI (present day Badami in North Katrnataka) and vanquished him  The original name of this place was Chaturvedi mangalam and it is said that there are numerous stone sculptures strewn around this village and also the temples here bound with lots of inscriptions which talk of how the chalukyas needed to be decimated and not shown any mercy!!

Dr.Gift Siromoney a legend of madras christian college in his book has this to say about Manimangalam and its archeological treasures

http://www.cmi.ac.in/gift/Archeaology/arch_mpillar.htm

once I reached i came to know that there is another temple for Vishnu Vaikunta perumal temple . There are a lot of inscriptions found here .in these temples

http://www.whatisindia.com/inscriptions/south_indian_inscriptions/volume_3/manimangalam.html

I have been greatly helped by the blogs  of Sri raju and Shri saravanan about these temples

http://www.dharsanam.com/2009/03/manimangalam-sri-dharmeswarar.html

http://shanthiraju.wordpress.com/2008/02/28/visit-to-somangalam-and-manimangalam-temples/

How to reach::

There are three routes toreach this village.

1) From Tambaram : Just before the Hindu mission hospital take a right turn into Sriperumbudur road /Mudichur road. Proceed for 10 kms when the road takes a turn to the right which is Manimangalam

2) From Sriperumbudur: On NH 4 after you cross the rajiv gandhi memorial there is a signal with a left towards Vandalur. It is also called Darkas road State highway 110  or Kodambakkam sripermbudur road proceed for about 1 km and take a right turn towards vandalur to reach manimangalam. It is about 19-20 kims from the NH 4

3) From Kunrathur: From kunrathur  Thirunageshwaram temple/Sekkhizar school take the highway adjacent to the temple.it will run parallel to the NH 4. After about 1 Km the road cuts across the Outer ring road from thiruninravur to vandalur. Take a left into this road and you will reach mudichur in about 10 kms. manimangalam is a further  km away on the right. The distance is about16 kms from Kunrathur

This trip I could see only the two shiva temples the Kurukall of the perumal temple had already left by 10 Am after completing the daily pooja so I was unfortunate to find the Vishnu temples locked. i shall maybe come back another day