Thirumalpur Shri Manikanteshwara swamy temple near Kanchipuram-padal petra sthalam

This is an ancient padal petra sthalam by Thirunavukkarasar as well as Gnanasambandar. It is a place where Lord Vishnu prayed to Lord shiva to obtain his Chakra. Since perumal also prayed to Shiva here Garudaseva is also a famous festival here. Both Perumal and Shiva are found facing each other here.

How to reach:

From Chennai to Bangalore  On NH 4 Cross Kanchipuram and you will reach the “Vellai gate” an old name for the new  railway over bridge do not climb but take the road under the bridge and turn right this is the road to arakonam and crosses govindawadi on the way(refer my blog on the temple

( Govindawadi guru temple)

You will reach tirumalpur railway station in 13 kms . Take a left turn under the railway line and proceed for another 3 kms till you can see the temple on the left hand side of a bifurcation.

Legends of the temple:

The Sivalingam is a sand lingam created by Parvathy who did penance for  Lord shiva here. The moolavar has a Silver Kavacham for which abhishekam is done. Vridha seera river which flows nearby was in floods hence parvathy embraced the Lingam and prayed to her brother who diverted the river towards Kanchipuram to save his sister

Once Lord Vishnu who was Assisting a king called Kugan who did not like sage dadhichi  he employed the chakra which got damaged after touching the rishi. In repentance of this action Vishnu prayed to Lord Shiva here with 1000 lotuses daily. One day he found he was one lotus short and plucked out his right eye to offer shiva

Siva was pleased and gave a boon to Vishnu here that he will be known as Kamalanayana, He also gave Vishnu his chakra which he had used to kill Jalandharan . So this place is also known as Harichakra  where hari got his chakra.

In the main sanctum we can see Vishnu with his hands folded inn prayer in front of Shiva behind the Nandi

Once Ravana came here to meet Shiva and was prevented from seeing Shiva by Nandi so he cursed Nandi to have a monkey face: Adhikara Nandi  who is found here in the wall. Nandi in turn curses Ravana that he will be defeated in war

There are a few special vigrahas here like

Dasha bhuja Vallabha vinayakar a 10 handed Vinayaka

Kulathunga Chola installed a Choleshwara linga here facing west  which is a rarity

Ashta bhuja Durgai is also very famous and rare sculpture

As you enter we see the raised platform with Nandi and th kodimaram

the anajanakshi ambal sannidhi is seen on the right

AS you enter the main praharam you can see the Nandi with mahavishnu standing behind in a prayer posture

The Lord in the sanctum is a very tiny Lingam swayambhu  with a Silver kavacham

The outer praharam has the choleshwara and the Koshta Vigrahas already alluded to. Ganapathy Dakshinamurthy , Perumal, Brahma and  Durga complete the picture. There is also a large Nataraja in Bronze.

The outer praharam 

 

There is a statue of Appar

 

 

Ambal sannidhi has a smiling standing anjanakshi amman with a navagraha sannidhi in the fore court.There is a simha vahanam for the ambal seen below

 

Sthala Vruksham is the Vilva tree

As I was leaving the temple I saw this huge Anjaneya outside

Tirukkachur Thyagarajaswamy koil (Kacchapeshwarar koil)

After a long time of wanting to visit this temple I could go today. This temple is  also called aalaya  kovil . it is the fourth in the list of the 275  paadal petra sthalams.it is a huge temple dating back to 1500 years.It is associated with Sundarar who has a shrine inside and other nayanmars like appar and the samaya kuruvinars..
How to reach:
The temple is situated on the road parallel to the GST road in front of the ford factory at Maraimalai nagar . Coming from Chennai take a U turn in front of the ford company and reach the Marai malai nagar railway station. Take a left turn into  the road before the railway station and keep proceeding as the road goes for about 3 kms via villages and the temple will be seen on the right.
Coming from Chengalpet side you can take a left turn at Singaperuman koil into the sriperumbudur road after the Singaperuman koil railway station and a right in the first turning . This will also bring you in front of the temple.
Both ways you have to cross the railway track. Be prepared to wait as the rail line is very busy.

There is no Raja gopuram here it seems it was demolished in the 1800’s.
There is a large banyan tree here hence aalaya  koil is another name for this temple

There is a huge temple tank called agni theertham which is seen behind the banyan tree in the pic above
Legends with the temple:
When Mahavishnu took the tortoise avataram he prayed to Shiva here to give him the strength to bear the churning mountain on his back. Since he was worshipped in the Kaccham (tortoise) form he is also known as kacchapeshwarar

Sri Sundarar one of the Nayanmars came to this temple from Tiruporur and was hungry and exhausted in the high noon. Shiva taking pity on him assumed the form of a poor brahmin and begged for food from the village and fed sundarar hence shiva is called Virundhiteshwarar ( one who gave him a feast) here. There is a separate sannidhi for this as well as a sannidhi for sundarar in this temple
As you enter the temple you see a huge outer praharam with Kodimaram

The outer praharam has  sannidhis for Ganapathy, Arumugham,Virunditteswarar , sundarar and ,bhairavar.




The entrance to the main praharam which houses the garba gruha of Siva and  uma is on the north side
The main praharam has a small Sivalingam in the main sanctum with separate sannidhis for Natarajar and panchaloha idols of Thyagaraja and uma with Murugan hence this temple is also known as Thyagaraja swamy temple.
The Amman sannidhi has a standing smiling Anjanakshi devi(umai ammai/ Sundaravalli) bestowing her benign grace on the pilgrims.
There is a neat stone paved way around the temple and the lawns were well maintained. I found a devout man doing anga pradakshinam in the outer praharam which is quite huge! No mean feat on a hot summer day!!
call the priest Mr Nataraja Iyer before going. His number is +91-44-27463514.He is also in charge of the malai koil (oushadeshwara koil ) about a mile ahead on the road on top of a hillock
From The Hindu coverage from the past
In all a very peaceful and calm temple
( The legend of the temple)


Some inscriptions inside