Kurangu Anil Muttam A Padal petra sthalam near Kanchipuram

This  is one of the temples which has been referred to by Kanchi Mahaperiyava in his Deivathin kural when some monkeys came to his camp and took away the plantains.

How to Reach
The place is about 10-15 kms from Kanchi on the Kanchi Vandavasi road. Travelling from Kanchi you will reach a village called Dusi. Turn left into Dusi and proceed for about 2 kms inside via small village roads and the locals will guide you to the temple. The temple is in front of a pond which was dug by Yama as a crow called Yamatheertham.This is sadly dry and in need of help.
Legends and stories of the temple:
The place is famous for the fact that Vali ( as a monkey), Indra (as a squirrel-anil) and Yama (as a crow- muttam) came here to pray to Shiva for redemption of their sins at the same time. Hence Kurangu anil muttam
The lord id a swayumbhu called Vaalesshwarar. Sri Gnanasambhandar has sung about this lord in his thevaram
In the month of Chittirai the sun shines on the lord. It is a surya kshetram and good for praying to be rid of eye ailments
The Sthala vriksham is the Elandhai  tree and the fruits are given with garlic and pepper as a prasadam for infertility to tone up the uterus

As you enter you see the nandi mandap with the balipeetam, The door way has the sculptures of Brahma, Indra, Vaali, Yama worshipping the lingam.

The temple is west facing and hence the ambal sannidhi is on the left facing south as you enter. The Shivalingam is a swayumbhu lingam with the avudiar facing our left. He is also known as Koyya malar nathar one who is worshipped with flowers untouched by the hand. It seems vaali shook the ilandhai tree and caused the flowers to drop on the lord as he did not want to defile the flowers by
touching them before offering it to the lord. Such was his bhakthi
The ambal Irayarvalai Ammai is atanding about 3 feet high facing south in her own sannidhi on the left as you enter the main temple
The kosta vigrahas are also reversed so we have durga
There are other vigrahas in the praharam like Kasi vishwanathar with Visalakshi,
Bhairavar

Saptha mathas

The temple history with the priests contact number
The outer court yard is well laid out and the trees abound with fruits and weaver bird nests!!
Elandhai maram
A bird peeping out of its nest!!
The Pond Yama theertham
Contact
Sridhara Gurukkal :9445642409

Technorati Tags: Kuranganilmuttam,Kanchipuram,Padalpetra sthalam,Thirugnanasambhandar,Yama,Indra,Vaali,Vaaleshwarar

Thiruvengadu temple

I have already blogged about the adhistnam of the Kanchi acharya  in this temple town. The temple is a very famous old temple more famous for its budhan (Mercury) . Bronze images and panchaloha images of Adithya chola and  Raja raja chola times have been unearthed from here and are in the museums at Tanjore and Chennai.



The Temple is a very huge one with three big ponds inside in five  different praharams.The soma kundam surya kundam referred in silappathikaram are said to refer to these ponds The main Diety is Shwetaranyeshwarar and the Goddess is Brahma vidya nayaki. Since Yama was punished here for taking the life of Swetakethu .Yama prayed here and was relieved of his curse . Thus the lord is called Swetaranyeshwarar
The main sanctum has a large Sivalingam behind this is the sanctum for Vishnu (The adi devatha here) To the North west in the main praharam are the praharams for Agora murthy and a separate sannidhi for Natarajar.
legend associated with this temple is that of demon Maruthuvan, son of demon Salanthiran. Maruthuvan was a staunch devotee of Lord Shiva. He performed rigours penance and was blessed with a trident (“Soolam” in Tamil). After receiving this blessing, he started terrorising the Devas. On the request of Devas, Lord Shiva instructed Nandhi to punish Maruthuvan. In the fight that ensued, Maruthuvan hit Nandhi in 9 places with the trident. On knowing this, Lord Shiva took the form of “Aghoramurthy” and vanquished the demon. This Murthy is the furious incarnation of Lord Shiva. It represents one of his five faces - “Aghoram”. It is believed that Lord Aghoramurthi killed the demon under a tree here. This tree can still be seen in the temple. The idol of Nandhi which is in front of the lord can be seen with 9 scars on its body Agora murthy is one of the 64 forms of shiva The Natarajar is unique in that he has a chidambaram style sannidhi and it is said that shiva did 7 types of dance here The Nataraja image bears the seven instruments and weapons - Vetalam, Khadgam, Udukku, Mani, Kedayam, Kapalam and Trisulam .
Once you come out of this prakaram you will see there are two shrines for ashta lakshmi with four in each shrine


The next structure you see is the Budhan sanidhi with the amman sanidhi in the back ground


The rudra mandapam seen from the Budhan sanidhi. This tank was dug by Indra to escape from a curse he incurred from Durvasa. He gave a mala received from Durvasa to Airavatha who trampled it and so incurred durvasa’s wrath so he atoned by worshipping shiva and dug a pond in this temple.
Next to the Amman sanidhi is the Adhishtanam of Brahma who was the father of the amman Brahma vidya nayaki.
A very huge temple with lots of Antiquity and three huge ponds full of water!!. Still the rush is for budhan sannidhi