Sri Vyagrapureeshwarar temple-Tirupulivanam- Vaipu sthalam

About 5 kms from Uthiramerur temple is this old temple where in Sage Vyagrapada and his wife prayed to and got darshan of Shiva. This is a vypu sthalam where in appar has mentioned the temple in his songs.(There is a confusion whether this temple is spoken of or the one at tirupulivanam near kumbhakonam is spoken of.Though this is the bigger of the two temples)

How to reach:

The temple is 5 kms away from Uthiramerur on the Uthiramerur kanchipuram road and can easily be seen from the road.

Legends and stories:

The uniqueness of the temple here is the Dakshinamurthy which is supposedly a ardhanari.The sanctum of the guru has  Vyaghrapada and his consort,King and Queen who prayed for children at Woraiyur trichy and were directed here by the lord to pray for begetting children, Saint Vyaghrapada is also supposed to have begotten progeny here.

The priest of the temple was instructed to send the garland of the lord daily . He was careless and there was a hair in the garland. When the king questioned him about the hair he says that the Lord has sprouted hair and this is one of them!! when the kind came to check the lord out of compassion to the priest had actually sprouted a head full of hair.This can be seen on the sivalingam today also

The dakshinamurthy here is unique,the right leg is on mugilan the left on a simham ,The left lower hand is pointing towards the right foot .This simha dakshinamurthy is to be prayed for all to by Simha rasi individuals .

Mother Amrutha kuchalambal is supposed to cure diseases.

The temple has a vasantha mandapam outside along with a bali peedam and nandi on the approach road itself 

As you enter the temple rajagopuram entrance you see the amman sannidhi on the right facing South. This is a separate structure away from the main temple. The amman is about 4 feet tall with a smiling face in the standing posture.

The entrance to the temple is through the multi pillared hall which has many beautiful carvings of stone

The inner praharam is peaceful with the main vimanam of the gajaprushti type. The main sanctum has a swayambhu shiva lingam with marks of  tiger claws and a head with a Shikha (Kudumi!)

The koshta vigrahas and Devathas are unique here with a separate sannidhi for the ardhanari dakshina murthy who has an enclosure that needs to be climbed up to . There is also a   narasimhar in the pillar facing the Koshta Varadarajan in the  west.   The small figures are all intricately carved.

Vyaghrapada above and Brahma below

Durga

The features of the idols are so beautiful and proportionate.

A  very intricately carved ganesha in the second praharam

The vigrahas in the pillars of the front hall are also a treat to watch

Nandi on the Chandikeswarar enclosure

Priest:Gunashekaran Cell no:09445111236

Sri Balasubramanyaswamy temple- Uthiramerur

Today I visited this temple as I had missed seeing this temple last month.

The temple is very close to the  Sundaravarada perumal temple and has been sung  about in Tirupugazh of Sri.Arunagirinathar

How to reach:

Uthiramerur can be reached either from Chengalpet side from the NH 45 . It is about18 kms from Bukathurai .Take the right on the highway after andal azhagar engineering college.The road ends at uthiramerur in front of the Sundara Varada peruma; temple. The Balasubramanya swamy temple is almost  next door

Legends and Facts:

Murugan did penance here before he started on his journey to kill Sura padman. He does penance in the presence of his parents and obtains aVel (spear) with which he slays the asura Sura padman . Here the vahanam for murugan is elephant.This is because only after slaying the asura,surapadman he becomes the peacock which is the vahana of Muruga.

It is a rock hewn temple as per pallava style and you can see the remnants of the hill with huge rocks jutting around in the outer praharam

As you enter the rajagopuram gate you see the dwajasthambam and the elephant  . The way to the inner praharam is seen in front.A recently added ayyappa  sannidhi on the right is glaringly different

There is an ancient vasantha mandapam on the right as well as a new constructions. The mandapam has intricate carvings sadly whitewashed .

The main sanctum has a 6 foot murugan with four hands and is very impressive. There are figures of Shiva Parvati and Vinayaka behind the main deity 

The Second praharam inside has unusual Koshta vigrahas . It is not the ganesha, brahma, durga you see it is Sangu nidhi kubera, etc

 

 

A sara Kondrai tree in full bloom at the temple

Thiruppugazh displayed inside

Sri Neelivaneshwarar temple Thirupaingili near Trichy -A padal petra sthalam

This is one of the most ancient paadal petra sthalams sung by saint Appar .The lord has fed appar as a  here

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The temple is  famous for the rebirth of Yama,the famous tiger stone granite construction. legend says it is 64 yugas old!! you can see the striped granite here

How to reach:

On the trichy salem road after you cross tollgate look for the road to Manachanallur on the right (SH64).Take a turn and in 25 kms you will reach Mannachanallur. The temple is 6 kms north east of this town. It is also only 3 kms from Thiruvellarai Pundarikaksha perumal. It can also be reached from Samayapuram on the Trichy Chennai Highway . It is about 20 kms from here.

There is no Rajagopuram. The temple was constructed by Mahendra Pallava and the beginnings of the tower were built by Sundara Chola.There are archeological evidences in the nearby rock cut cave temples about the grants to this temple.You can see the unfinished gopuram and the Kasi viswanathar on the right

Another view of the kasi viswanathar sannidhi

Legends of the temple:

This place was the ashrama of Markandeya maharishi and he and his daughter Lakshmi were in penance here.

Sibi Chakravarthy was the ruler here many yugas ago. He was an ancestor of Dasaratha. The atrocities of asuras like Ravana perturbed him and he came with his army and rested here in the neeli vanam. Neeli is a peculiar Banana not consumed by people or animals. This is the sthala vruksham here.

Sibi saw a white boar (swetha varaha) and chased it to the ant hill at Tiruvellarai and found the image of Pundarikaksha perumal. Markandeya maharishi asked him to stop the army’s march as perumal will take an avatar later to vanquish Ravana and directed Sibi instead to build the Tiruvellarai temple.There is a  Ravana kulam here .

This place was also  the ashrama of Vashishta  who prayed to the lord to give him darshan of the Cosmic dance given to vyaghrapada and Patanjali at Chidambaram. So the lord did so .This place is also called Vada(north) Chidambaram.

Once Ganesha and Adiseshan were playfully combating and in a rare display of strength adiseshan hugged the kailasa mountain and crushed it. One of the pieces was dispersed here. There are statues of ganesha and Adisesha in the vasantha mandapam here where they did penance to repent for their mischief. This is seen below.

When Yama was to take the life of Markandeya Siva saves markandeya and kills Yama(temple at Thirukadaiyur). As a result no death takes place and the earth becomes heavy. and chaotic with the increase in population. Bhudevi  found that only here things were peaceful. She then prayed to Siva to resurrect Yama to restore balance. There is a cave here where in the form of Somaskanda, Siva restored Yama to life. Yama emerged from a pillar here as a pilaka form . It is believed that prayer here will remove the fear of Yama.It is customary to first visit this shrine then wash your feet and then visit the main temple complex

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We then move into the main temple into  third praharam by the entrance below

The Third praharam has the Dwaja sthambam , Amman sannidhis(yes two) and the Vasantha mandapam and sannidhis for vinayaka and adisesha

There is no Navagraha sannidhi here. Just before the Dwajasthambam all the navagrahas are depicted as pits “Navgraha kuzhi” and lamps are lit in these pits

The neeli vazhai thottam is between the second and third praharm.  between the amman and the second 

sannidhi

  

View of the second amman praharam the first is on the right hand side here.

It seems the idol of Visalakshi amman was damaged and was replaced.The king had a divine dream asking him to restore the original amman  so there are two Amman's.Puja is for the old amman.

The kulam in front of the second Amman's temple

when you move to the second praharam A small entrance leads you to the Sivan sannidhi.

The Sivan here is small and tiny a swayambhu and is known as Neelivaneshwarar, Viswanathar, 

Sooreteashwarar

The Koshta Vigrahas

Suryan and chandran are also present.

There are a lot of writings on the wall and also stone edicts which give the temple an ancient charm