Navagraha temples in Chennai around Porur- Somanatheshwara temple at somamangalam , Chandran Kshetram

Today I found time to visit this tiny peaceful temple situated between Tambaram and Sriperumbadur. It is the Chandran kshetram in the navagraha temples of the Thondai mandalam of Chola land.
How to reach:
There are three main routes to go to this temple.
1) From Tambaram take the road to Kishkinda theme park and after 14 kms(6 kms beyond this park) you will reach Sairam engineering college  proceed straight and you will reach the Govt school on the right and Periapalayathamman koil in front of you at the village centre . Take the left turn here and in 2 kms you will reach the temple
2) From Sriperumbudur when you are proceeding from Chennai after the Rajiv Gandhi memorial take the left road to Kunrathur (the Sriperumbudur Kodambakkam highway 113) approx 10 kms from sriperumbudur look for the right turn to Darkas follow the road for 4.5 kms and you will reach the Somamangalam amman temple go straight for about 2 kms to reach the temple
3) From Porur Junction take the Kunrathur road and reach kunrathur. At this place take a right turn after the Naageshwarar temple into SH 113 proceed for about 15 kms till you reach the Darkas road. the road skirts Chembarambakkam eri and is parallel to the chennai Bangalore highway. After the madha medical college and Madha engineering college you will come to Nandambakkam  and to Darkas road junction .Take a left here. From Porur junction this point  is exactly 15 kms. Rest is as per the second route.


Legend  associated with the temple:
Once Moon God (Soma) was cursed by King Daksha and lost his beauty. Distressed by this, Chandran prayed to Lord Shiva, took bath in the ‘Vinai Theertha Kulam’ (the tank that eliminates all bad karmas) at half a km to the west of this temple and worshipped Shiva to regain his lost charm.
This ancient temple was built by the Chola king, Kulathunga Chola in 1073 A.D. This has the Gajaprushti vimana. It is believed that 108 shiva temples have been built by the same king. Thirumazhisai, Somangalam, Manimangalam Dharmeshvarar and Mannivakkam (maniaandi) are some of the temples of that group in this region. This temple  has Somanatheeswarar as the main deity with the Chandra adorning Shiva
When the temple was being built, invaders came  to battle but the men were all busy with constructing temples so  the King prayed to lord Shiva, who then asked Nandhi to go out and counter the enemies. Nandhi, without getting up from his place, vanquished the invaders just by blowing out his breath . The  Nandhi is looking away from the lord as in the Thirumullaivoyal temple .Another legend  says that a sage named Somanathar attained Jeeva Samadhi at the feet of Lord Nandhikeswarar, who is believed to have guarded the sage  against any disturbances while doing penance.
The inscriptions found in the temple reveal interesting details of the local lake which got damaged and about the repair works undertaken to it. Also, there is information about the donation of cows to the temple to fetch revenue for lighting the lamps in the temple, every evening
The temple:
There is a small temple for Vinayaka just outside the main temple



As you enter the gate which is in the south to the left you see the main sanctum of Lord shiva and a small sannidhi for Vinayaka.
This main sannidhi has the statues of Brahma , balasubramanyam  on the left
( as seen below)
There is an imposing sannidhi for Shri Balasubramanyan here  to commemorate his taking over Brahma’s functions for  short time ( see pic below). This lord is facing east and in from of him is the path to the Sivan sannidhi seen on the right side of the pic below

(The temple legend seen in this hall)
The main Sivalingam is imposing and serene with the garbagruha very cool on a hot day.Lord Natarajar here is present as Chathura Thaandava Murthy which is again very unique and is  rarely seen anywhere else.Chathuram (square) is the shape of moon god that coincides with the Chathura thandavam of Natarajar
You can see the Nandi outside this complex facing east away from Siva

Next to the main sannidhi In front of the main gate  is the imposing sannidhi of Kamakshi devi facing South

Between the Sivan and Kamakshi sannidhis to the North west is another  seperate sannidhi for Balasubramanian
To the Eastern side  facing the Siva shrine are the sannidhis of Chandran and Suryan  flanking the gate . You can see the Chandran sanidhi below with a navagraha sannidhi on the left
Sri Dhakshinamurthy, Sri Mahavishnu, Sri Brahma, Sri Durgai and Sri Chandikeshwarar are seen on the outer walls of the sanctum. The other deities like Sri Valli Devasena Samedha Sri Subramanyar and Sri Bhairavar have separate shrines on the outer praakaaram.
( as seen in the photos below)

(Vinayakar and Dakshina murthy on the south west)

(Shri.Mahavishnu on the eastern side)

(Durga and Chandikeshwarar on the north side)
The pond is called Chandikeshwara theertham as it was built by him it seems

There is a Nagalingam and naga devatha below the sthala vriksham Sarakonnai tree



( idols found behind the Sarakonnai tree)

(view from behind the Kamakshi sannidhi and next to the Bhairavar sannidhi)

(view from the Chandran Sannidhi on the East)
There are inscriptions belonging to 5 different time periods

In the outer praharam there are idols of Saptha mathas, the first in the row being Jyeshta devi, the ambal of Lord Saturn and earlier one to emerge than Mahalakshmi when the Milky ocean was churned, a rare idol. Also present is Maandhi with buffalo head born to Jyeshta devi and Saniswaran

 
Contact: Suresh Kurukkal – 044 – 2717 8330 (lives near the temple)
Temple Timing: 8 AM – 10 AM and 5 PM – 7 PM – It is preferred to visit the temple only in the mornings
since not many people visit the temple the evening timing is variable . In fact when i went in the morning there was nobody and luckily the keys were produced by a neighbor who let us inside to enjoy the calmness of the temple !
Enroute to this temple is also the Sundaraja perumal temple which was closed when I went there

Vengeeshwarar temple Vadapalani ( popularly known as Vadapalani Sivan koil)

(Actually it is situated in Kodambakkam)
Having gone past this temple many times today(14/8/10) I had an opportunity to go inside. The temple is on 100 feet road after the Vadapalani junction .It can be easily approached by the main entrance on the eastern side by a road parallel to the 100 ft road  from the kodambakkam high road this is the way traffic is directed towards vadapalani from nungambakkam side . The temple is on the second road on the right and can be seen from the main road

. This is an old chola temple with the elephant back ( gajaprushti)type of vimana but the Gopurams are Chola type


The kumbabishekam is probably being planned hence the covering of the gopuram. Legend says that this temple was built by Sage Patanjali and sage Vyagrapada for his daily worship ( Vengi=vyagraha=tiger). see link "The Hindu "
As a documentation, in the inner sanctum of the Sivalingam there are two sculptures of Sage Vyagrapada and Sage Patanjali ( with lower part in snake form)on either side of the door.


The entrance leads to a large courtyard with the Sivan sannidhi in the back and Amman sannidhi in the fore ground on the left
The main sannidhi is at least 3 feet deep compared to the general floor and houses a magnificent big Siva lingam.The inner sanctum of the Sivalingam has two sculptures of Sri.Vyagrapada and Sri.Patanjali on either side of the door facing the Shivalingam. The outer walls of this sannidhi houses Dakshinamurthy on the north, vishnu on the west , Brahma on the south with Durga.
There is a separate Vinayaka sannidhi with gopuram on the north side and murugan on the South side
There are separate sannidhis for Kasi Vishwanathar and Visalakshi and a sannidhi for Gaja Lakshmi in the north West corner. The west also has a tall gopuram which is being constructed new now.
The Amman sannidhi houses Shri.Santanayaki  in the standing posture. The inner walls have the idols of Appar, Sundarar, Manickavasagar and Thirugnanasambandam probably documenting their visits to this temple. Behind this sannidhi is a separate sanidhi for Bhairavar (seen in the back in the following picture) Next to it is the Nagadevathai prathistai under the Banyan tree

The Eastern side of the complex has separate sannidhis for Sanishwarar ( Standing)To the left of Saniswarar is Chandran and Munishwarar sanidhi. On the other side of the Gopuram dwaram are sannidhis for Suryan and another Veerabhadran with a separate enclosure for Navagrahas
Till a few years ago here was a big temple pond on the South side out side the main temple complex sadly this is no longer seen.

Navagraha temples in chennai near porur-Vaidhyeeswaran Temple In Poonamalle- Sevvai Kshetram

Today(18/07/2010) there was a medical camp at Kanchipuram and enroute I stopped at the Poonamallee Vaitheeswaran koil. It is said to be a pallava temple and built with exquisite carvings. Like the one near Kumbakonam this is also a Navagraha ,Sevvai kshetram (Mars /Angarakan)
On the Chennai Bangalore highway branch off left at Saveetha Dental college and travel up to the Mount Poonamallee road. Take a right turn into poonamalle town. After about 1-1.5 kms you will reach the Bus stand and Sundar hospital on the right. A left turn here leads you directly into the temple south side.
The South Gopuram has interesting vigrahas of Siva, Vishnu, Brahma, Parvati, Subramanya and Ganesh. .There is a unique idol of the trimurthys 

There is a large outer Prakaram and a covered inner prakaram with a huge temple tank outside on the east.
(View of the inner prakaram showing the Ambal sannidhi in the foreground and Main sannidhi on the right)

The main deity is the Siva lingam( Vaitheeswaran) facing east and goddess Thayal nayaki has a separate sannidhi facing the south in the inner Prakaram . Just outside the Sivan sannidhi is the sannidhi for Sevvai (angarakan with a carving showing legs and a statue for palm tree) the Sthala Vriksha Thaazhi Panai Maram (Thazhi Palm),

There is a separate sannidhi for Subramanian in the inner prakaram ,Adi Sankara has installed three chakras next to this sannidhi (Shiva Chakra, Subramania Chakra, Sri Charka ) . Every pournami and Amavasya abhishekam is done for these chakrams  There are also separate exquisite vighrahas of Brahma, Dakshinamurthy, Durga on the wall of the Shivan sannidhi
There is special pooja for angaraka on Tuesdays. similarly the other speciality in this temple is during month of march , the rays of the sun falls on the sanctum sanctorum in the morning for about five days continuously. This is called as "surya pooja" or the worship of Shiva by Sun god. It lasts for about 5 or 6 mins every day during that five day pooja.
The another speciality in this temple near the East  gopuram  is "Viduthalai Shani"( freedom shani) that is here the Saneeshwara is standing separately facing east. In front of him both Nala and Damayanthi are standing and here is the place where Nala got relieved from Shani.
Thus this temple is connected to the navagrahas Sun, Shani (Saturn) and Sevvai(Angarakan/ mars)
The South Mandapam has exquisite carvings in the doorways There is also a samadhi for a siddhar inside the temple   in the outer prakaram which is marked by a lingam.