Kadambar Koil

The village itself is called Kadambar koil after the temple.

How to reach
This is around 15 kms from Uthiramerur on the Kanchipuram road.The temple can easily be missed. Before you come to the bridge accross the cheyyar look for the temple arch on the left and proceed for about 1 km via verdant greenery to reach the temple.The temple is midway between Kanchi and Uthiramerur
Legend:
The temple has been sung by Thirugnana Sambandar and so should be more than 1300 years old
This lord was prayed to by kashyapa muni when the yaga he was doing was disrupted by asuras Mahanan and Maagaral.  lord Shiva  then asked Kandan to proceed to help the rishi which kumaran did with the help of the magic vel.Since he worshipped his father here the lord is known as Kadambareshwarar as Kadamba is one of murugan’s names
The river Cheyyar flows west to east. At this place it flows north to south like the ganges and hence it is a moksha puri like Kasi.
Once a brahmin from Pandya kingdom  called Gunaseelan died, his son Budhisenan brought his ash to immerse it in Kasi. When he was having a bath here keeping the pot with ash in the bank the water happened to fall on the ashes and he was surprised to find that the bones got changed to flowers in the pot. At that time, a  voice was heard that this place is much holier than Kasi and so  the ashes can  be immersed here. He did the same in the river Cheyyar So this is a place where one can do the rituals for the forefathers like in Kasi and to worship for salvation.

The outer view of the temple

(View of the kodimaram from the main gate)

View of the nandhi
The main sanctum houses a small Sivalingam which is slanting to the left facing east. This is a swayumbhu lingam and there is a gajaprushti vimanam.
The main praharam also houses Avudai nayaki amman in the standing posture facing south
There is a small navagraha sannidhi outside in the praharam a later addition.
There is an adhikara nandi  and 63 nayanmarsin the outer praharam with the usual kosta vigrahams of ,Vinayaka, Lingodhbavar,Dakshinamurthy, Durga ,Chandikeshwarar and Bhairavar in their usual niches as in all Siva temples

A small and peaceful temple
Archakar Shri Kannan.T Cell:9655035503
I reached the temple at about 11:45 AM and it was closed but local people sumoned the very patient and affable archakar who re opened the temple and showed us around and answered all my queries in a soft way and made me  feel very blessed!
Hours from 7 AM to 11:30 and 4Pm to 7:30 PM

Kapaleeshwarar koil Mylapore-A padal petra sthalam , A saptharishi kshetram in chennai

Kapaleeswarar Temple Worshipped by Sage Kashyapa, This is one of the 275 Thevara Padal Petra Sthalams

Last evening i visited the mylapore kapalishwaran koil for the first time. It is a magnificent imposing structure seen from far  

( view of the western side from the tank)

It is much more imposing when seen from close

The eastern side is approached from the Car street . It has a 16 pillared mandapam

There is convenient shoe stand where we leave foot wear and enter the massive temple complex.( the view below is from the shoe stand area)

Legends and interesting tidbits:

The legend here is interesting. Once in Mount Kailash where lord Siva was giving Gyananopadesam (Holy teaching) about the sacred thread to goddess Parvathi  She was distracted by the beauty of a peacock, dancing beside. Lord got angry and cursed her to be born as a Mayil (peacock). When she pleaded for pardon, Siva said he would join her when Peacock worshipped a sivalingam. After a long period penance, the peacock found a sivalingam under a punnai tree and worshipped the lord offering flowers it carried in its beak. The lord appeared before her and divine couple reunited. There is a sanidhi with a peacock doing puja to a lingam with a punnai tree in this temple.

The most beautiful miracle of Mylapore related in the Periapuranam by Sekkizhar is that of bringing back to life of the girl, Poopavai by the boy saint Gnansambandar. The girl died by the bite of a serpent. The bones and ashes were brought back to life by the hymns of gnansambandar, starting “Mattina Punnayinganal….!!”. This is believed to have happened during the 7^th century A.D. A separate shrine has been built for Angam Poopavai.

In 1921, near the Santhome Cathedral some inscriptions related to the incident were found.

historically this temple was built  300 yrs ago by Krishnadevaraya but the original temple built by the pallavas existed in about  seventh century and was originally in San thome due to alien invasion the temple was supposedly  razed down in 1561and was re built later about 1 km westward in the present place. Till date epitaphs dating back to 1250 A.D are found by archeologists near Santhome Basilica..

This present place place was initially a murugan temple so it explains why there is a dwaja sthamba in front of murugan also and also that the Murugan sannidhi gopuram is the tallest.usualy there is only one dwaja stambha not two and the main diety gopuram is the tallest.

The Lord Shiva here is called Kapaleeshwarar. Legend says that Lord Shiva  was cursed with Bramhahathi Dhosham due to beheading Brahmas's fourth head . This curse was removed after Shiva used that skull as a begging bowl and took alms. The Skull is Kapalam in sanskrit/ Tamil and hence  Shiva here is called Kapaleeshwara.

Once inside through the rajagopuram you come into the Narthana ganapathy sannithi, Annamalaiar and Unnamalai sannithi in the next door. To the left of this sannidhi are the Palani andavar and  Vayilar nayanar sanidhi. ( This nayanar had constructed a temple in is heart and  lord vishnu came for kumbabishekam forsaking a temple where a king was doing the kumbabishekam! . he was a king born in the mylapore region)

Next you can see the Dwaja sthambam and the bali peetam and the Main sannidhi on the right.The Kapaleshwara lingam is big and the sanidhi has idols of Singaravelar, Natarajar, Aruvathu moovarhal – 63 saints, Durga Lakshmi, Saraswathi, Veera Bhadra, Nalvar, Annamalayar, Dakshinamoorthy, Selva Ganapathy and Somaskandha.

The next is the Karpagambal sanidhi where the goddess is standing tall and benignly smiling.

Once out of this you will circum ambulate to the northern side where there is the sannidhi of the peacock worshipping the lingam by the side of the goshala and the Punni tree

There is a separate sannidhi for Sanishwara here to the right facing the west and once you finish darshan there the next door is the Navagraha sannidhi .

Once you come out here towards the annamalaiar sannidhi is the Jagadeshwara sanidhi.

On the western side once you come out is the temple tank originally built by mylai muthaippa mudaliar in the 16 century but later re done by the Nawab of Arcot so every Ramzan muslims are given access to the tank .

(photos courtesy from the net till I can post my own)