Sri Kari Varadaraja Perumal temple-Madhavaram in Chennai

Enroute to the Kailasanathar temple I visited this temple.it is built recently but the idols were looking ancient. I could not find much information on this temple. The main sannidhi has Varadaraja perumal with Sridevi and Bhoodevi in  the standing pose . There are separate sannidhis for Kanakavalli thayar, chakrathalwar, andal.It is a small place and I saw the dwelling for the archakas also inside,

Both the Madhavaram temples were built by Nandi Varma pallava in 656 AD I was told

Just outside is the imposing  Anjeneya statue

Sri Kailasanathar Karpagambal Temple at Madhavaram in Chennai

Today I visited Madhavaram a quiet suburb of Chennai towards the North where in I could visit this temple.Madhavaram is more famous for its Milk Diary (Aavin runs its biggest diary processing facility here)

How to Reach:

I traveled through the PADI to REDHILLS highway and near puzhal proceeded straight to Madhavaram at the round about I took the right and entered Madhavaram. in about 1 KM I saw the perumal koil street on the left proceed straight and cross the perumal koil and as the road narrows take the second left after the perumal temple you will arrive at the Sivan temple

The main entrance is closed as there is painting work going on  in the Rajagopuram

History of the temple:

The temple was apparently built by the pallavas in 610 AD there was a stone tablet which proclaimed this and it said the temple was not having pujas for more than 50 years until a member of the caretaker family formally re built the temple and re furbished new vigrahas. The moolavar Shivalinga is a majestic 5 foot Maragatha lingam which is truly imposing

The  temple itself is very small with a large courtyard

The main prahara has the sanctum for east facing Shiva Lingam Sri.Kailasanathar and a South Facing Sanctum for Sri.Karpagambal who is a small 3 feet statue but with wonderful alankara. I was able to witness abhishekam of the mother today morning

Vinayaka

Dakshinamurthy

nayanmars

Ganapathy

The outside has koshta vigrahas and also shrines as  above

There are sannidhis for the Jyotirlingas, mahalakshmi and murugan

The northern side had a hanuman sannidhi also

All in all a quiet temple ancient with a modern make over

Thiru Kumaraswamy temple Erukathampuliyur nearVriddhachalam- A padalpetra Sthalam

I had an opportunity to visit this temple near Vriddhachalam last Sunday. I was driving down from kumbakonam to Chennai after an “on the spur of a  moment” trip the previous day. my wife and her aunt wanted to visit Andimadam , a small village famous  for its cotton sarees which are very light in weight and on the purse too!! So after a feel good saree purchase trip I happened to pass by this temple currently under renovation and had a good darshan.

How to Reach: 

The temple is situated in Rajendrapatnam and is known as Erukathampuliyur due to the abundant Erukka( Calotropis procera, Arka, Jilledu, Erukkam) trees forest here puliyur because Vyagrapada did penance here.More about that in history.Rajendrapatnam is 25 kms from Jayamkondan towards Vriddhachalam and it is 13 kms away from Vriddhachalam.The temple is easily found just by the side of the highway.

Legends and Stories:

This place was very peaceful in the past and all the devas used  to come here to meditate on the lord Shiva here in the form of bees, animals, trees etc. The local hunters started hunting these animals and cutting the divine trees.The lord cursed these hunters to become erukka plant which is generally considered useless .This explains the Erukka forest.

Once Shiva was expounding the Vedas to Parvati and she appeared disinterested he cursed her then to be born here as a fisher women.this enraged Murugan who threw the palm leaves of shiva as his mother was cursed so Shiva also bid him to be born on earth in Madurai  to Sri. Thalapathy and Gunasalini in the name of Rudrasanman , He was unfortunately born a deaf mute.  When he grew old, he went to many Shiva shrines seeking relief and was blessed with speaking skills at Erukathampuliyur.  As Kumaran (Murugan) worshipped Lord Shiva in the place, the Lord is named Thiru Kumara Swami.  There is an idol of Rudrasanma in the temple.

King Rajaraja Chola I(/Ponniyin Selvan/Arulmozhi Varman) prayed to Lord of this temple seeking a worthy progeny and was blessed with a son who later grew famous as Rajendra Cholan, hence, the place is called Rajendrapattinam.

A king from the North of India called Suvedhan a, staunch Shiva devotee was infected with leucoderma due to his past sins and got relieved of the cruel disease by worshipping the Lord after a dip in the sacred Erukathampuliyur spring.   

The rays of Sun fall on the Lord from March 16 to 20. 

People with Speech impediment and speech difficulties pray to the lord here for mitigation of their problems.

It is the birth place of Thiru neelakanta Yazhpanar a Nayanmar

Thirugnanasambandar has composed Padigams on this lord

It iss a small temple with both the Shivan a medium sized Shivalingam  and Ambal Veramulai Amman – Abhinna Kusa Nayaki sannidhi are both side by side facing east

The small outer praharam has sannidhis for Vinayaka and Murugan. The Koshta Vigrahas are Dakshinamurthy, Brahma and Durga and Perumal

The Nayanmars and Rudrasanman statue behind

Below we see Brahma and Durga in the Koshta

Tiruvelvikudi ManaVaaleshwarar temple-Kumbakonam- A Padal petra sthalam

By sheer providence  on a trip to Kumbakonam, I took a wrong turn at Aduthurai and ended up at this temple while trying to visit the Thirumananjeri temple (click here to see my blog on the Thirumananjeri temple).

It was a divine blessing as I came too know that the pre marriage Vedic homams were all conducted here for Shiva and Parvathy before their wedding at Thirumananjeri and we are supposed to visit this temple before visiting the Thirumananjeri temple.

How to Reach:

This temple is very close to the thirumananjeri temple and easily accessed from Aduthurai (for details see my blog on the Thirumanenjeri temple)

Legends of the temple:

The temple was the place where the vedic homam before the wedding was conducted. Those with delay in wedding should do homams here to expedite things.Compared to the Thirumananjeri temple there is no crowd here. the peaceful surroundings were enchanting    .

 

The temple has  nice pond outside and the outer courtyard is well maintained                             The main Shiva  Sri Manavaaleshwarar sannidhi is seen in front  facing east.He is a majestic Shiva Lingam almost 5 feet tall

with Ambal Parimala Sugandha nayaki in the front facing south.The ambal is standing and is about 5 feet tall

The outer praharam has a sannidhi where Shiva and parvathi are seen holding hands . The brass figures are exquisite but in need of better maintenance 

The koshta vigrahas are of Ganapathi, Agasthiar, Nataraja

, Dakshinamurthy,

Lingodbhava, Chandrasekhara and Ardhanareeswarar adorn the outer walls of the main sanctum. 

The Ardhanari is unique in hat the shakthi is depicted on the right half unlike the usual left .

There is an unique durgai and a bhikshandar

There is an unique eeshana lingam in its own enclosure and lighting a lamp here will help mitigate navagraha and marriage doshams

 

The Bull image on the temple was very life like

The well had living trees as posts to support the pulley

The entrance to the ambal sannidhi

Inscriptions from the period of Sembiyan Mahadevi and Raja Raja Cholan and Parantaka Chola have been found in this temple.

The temple legend a shown above the Shivan sannidhi