Nellaiappar Temple – Portion connecting Nellaiappar
& Kanthimathi Shrine
Near Karumari tank, there is a big shrine for
Subramanya. Lord Subramanya is present along with his consorts Valli and
Devasena in this shrine. Near Pottramarai tank, there are many small shrines
for Shiva Linga and various snake idols. There is a famous shrine of Lord
Ganesha - Pottramarai Pillaiyar - where he appears along with his consort
Siddhi. There is another famous shrine for Mother Goddess - Manjana Vadivamman,
which is visited by a lot of devotees daily. Apart from this, there is a shrine
for Dakshinamurthy, and Saraswati.
Once you finish visiting the Kanthimathi temple and
enter into Nellaiappar temple via the Sangili Mandapa, you can visit the shrine
of Dakshinamurthy. This is basically the biggest corridor (prakara) of Nellaiappar
shrine. If you turn towards your left and move forward, you can find small
shrines of Sankaralingam (Shiva) and Gomathy Amman. Diagonally opposite to this
small shrine, there is a big shrine, almost like a small separate temple, for
Shanmuga aka Arumuganainar (Lord Muruga with six heads) is located. He is found
along with his two consorts Valli and Devasena. The specialty of this shrine is
that you can see even the sixth face of Muruga which is located behind.
Normally, it may not be possible in other temples. Next to this shrine, there
is a shrine for a very big idol of Lord Ganesha. Opposite to this there is an
entrance with a small temple tower.
If you go further into the corridor, you can find the
temple elephant. There is a shrine for ferocious idol of Bhairava. You can also
find a small shrine for Meenakshi and Sundareswarar (Shiva). The Navagraha
(nine planets) located opposite to Sundareswarar shrine is very famous. This is
located very near to the main entrance of Nellaiappar shrine. You can also find
the shrines of Vanniadi Sattanar, an open ground space for religious
discourses, Anwarnathan (Shiva's shrine built by a Muslim commander Anwar
Khan), and various idols of Nayak rulers who ruled Tirunelveli in the corridor.
