Thiruthalinathar Yoga bhairavar temple , Nindra Narayana Perumal templeat Thirupattur Sivaganga a padal petra sthalam

Yesterday 19/7/12 Enroute to Nattaraskottai from pudukottai I visited this ancient temple . it is one of the pandya desam padal petra sthalam. It has been visited by Appar, sundarar,Gnanasambandar and sung about. It is also associated with Valmiki. The ancient name for his temple is Thiruputhur (ant hill) but it is not corroborated by Ramayana. There is how ever a Sannidhi for Valmiki inside, below the sthala Vriksham Sara konrai. It is about 15 acres .

How to reach:

when you drive from Pudukottai to sivaganga on the Rameshwaram route you will reach Thirumayyam fort. Take the right turn to Rameshwaram and Thirupattur is about 50 kms from Pudukottai.The temple is situated on the main road itself.

Legends of the temple:

Shiva annihilated the demons Andakasura and Sambasura who were the sons of the Demon Hiranyaksha.Since he wanted relief from the sin he went into yoga nidra here and worshipped shri Thiruthalinathar. The concept of Pranavam is said to have been realized here( that Shiva & Pranavam were one and the same) PRANAVAM  is said to have manifested itself as the Konrai Maram the sthala vruksham here

 

Mahavishnu has also worshipped shiva here . There is a separate sannidhi for Vishnu with  Sridevi, Bhudevi a well as Hanuman the Lakshminarayana sannidhi.

Sri Ninra Narayanaperumal Temple:
It has served as a place promoting Vaishnavism. During the rule of King Varaguna Pandiyan II (862-885) a Perumal temple had been existence in this place. Lord Perumal installed in this temple is referred to as Jalasayanathupadarar in the inscriptions of King Varaguna Pandiyan II. In addition to this temple, for the sake of Lord Perumal in the standing posture, another Perumal temple was constructed in the south of Sri Thiruthalinathar temple during the Pandiya period. It contains inscriptions of later Pandiyas dating back to the 13th century. The inscription of King Maravarman Sundara Pandiyan (1216-1239 A.D) refers to this other temple as Kola Varaga Vinnagara Emperumal temple and donation of lands in 1237 A.D to meet daily expenses of the performance of poojas.

The navagrahas are in the sitting posture  here hence they will wait to hear your requests!

Yoga bhairavar is without his vahanam here.The Guru dakshinamurthy here is also without the four disciples

There is also a shrine for Lord Tirunageswarar where people worship during Rahu Kalam time. According to the legend, the prominent snakes Vasuki and Kaarkotakan worshipped Lord Shiva here and hence the separate shrine for Tirunageswarar in the outer 3rd Praharam

Lord Muruga is facing north with His consorts Valli and Deivanai.  Saint Arunagiriar had praised Lord Muruga of the temple in his Tirupugazh hymns.  Lord Nataraja graces in His Gouri thandava dancing form.  Mahalakshmi wanted to see the thandava of Shiva and here he blessed her with that dance

As you enter the temple you see the first praharam with an elephant enclosure and the Peacock strolling around. 

The Sannidhi for  Bhairavar and Vishnu are in this praharam facing west and east respectively. The Bhairavar temple has an unique epoxy coating to prevent damage to the carvings. 

The next sannidhi has Sivagami Amman sannithi on the right here facing east

The Sthala vruksham, Murugan sannidhi , the vinyaga and Valmiki sannidhis are situated behind the main temple.     

The Carvings here are exquisite as are the Ramayana scenes below

 

Lord Shiva is in the main sannidhi as a swayubhulingam here.

The temple is quite big with  a well maintained ambience.

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.