Sri Kanakadurga temple Vijayawada

I had the opportunity to visit this temple this Sunday as per the wishes of the Kanchi acharyas who are camping here for their chaturmasa vratam. The Krishna river will have the pushkar festival from Aug 12  to 24 this year hence hectic construction  activity is taking place. I had previously visited this temple  in 1983 and remember climbing up the Indra keeladri hill but today there is a magnificent 7 floored multistory building engulfing the hill which is the modern queue complex. There is a lift available for the physically challenged also.
How to Reach:
The temple is on a hillock where the NH 5 enters the city from the south at the Krishna river barrage. It is very close to the station and you just can't miss it.There is a road up the ghat road and vehicles were allowed up previously. For the pushkar it has been stopped.
Legends
Indra Keela a sage obtained a boon that  Ma Durga would stay Atop his head and protect the people from asuras in the previous Yuga .True to her word After killing mahishasura, Durga came to rest on the Indrakeeladri hill protecting the people of Bezwada. The 10 day Dasara festival is grandly celebrated here with daily adornments and alankara of Durga Devi.Since she shines in a holden hue she is called Kanaka Durga. Kanaka is gold in Telugu and Sanskrit.
There is another story that Durga playfully removed the nose ring from Krishnaa and ran up the hill.Krishna has promised that at the end of the Yuga she will rise up to the hill and redeem her nose ring

In the Mahabharata Arjuna has a fight  with Shiva as a hunter in claiming  a wild boar killed by his arrow,Shiva tests him and this is where he gives Arjuna the pasupata astra.
The Chola king Vijaya adithya conquered this land and built  the Vijayeshwara temple below the hill to commemorate Arjuna's receiving the astra.

The river Krishna was stopped by the hills here . Answering the peoples prayers Shiva created caverns and tunnels in these hills to allow free flow of the river to irrigate the land and make it fertile. Locally these tunnels are called Bejjalu hence the name Bejjalu wada or Bezwada for this city. To commemorate this the Mallikarjuna shiva temple is built on another hill adjoining the Durga temple.
Adishankara visited this place and has codified Pooja here and has done a Srichakra yanthra sthapana in this temple

When you visit the temple please leave the cell phones in designated lockers and you can move up 7 floors in dedicated queues for Rs.5/20/100 and free darshan. Tickets will be issued in the queue itself with laddu  .
You will be allowed in front of the sanctum for a brief period to pray.
The temple has a dedicated website for all special Poojas and sevas .
Everything is peaceful inspute of the crowd above at the temple .please do visit and enjoy the benefits of Ma Durga

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.