Kanchi Kailasanathar Temple - Legends

Kanchi Kailasanathar Temple - Legends

Janana & Marana Entrance in the Main Shrine:

As per the legend, there were three demons named Tharakatchan, Kamalatchan and Vidhyamali (Tiripuraris) who were ardent devotees of Lord Shiva. They were troubling Devas, and nobody including Vishnu could destroy them due to their belief in Lord Shiva. Vishnu took the incarnation of Buddha and along with Narada; he changed their mind and made them non-believers of Lord Shiva. It enabled Lord Vishnu to destroy the demons. After this incident, in order to get rid of the sin, Lord Buddha and Narada installed a Shiva linga idol in Kanchipuram and were praying to Shiva.

Lord Shiva appeared before them and said that they may have to take a lot of births to get rid of their sin. There is small passage around the main shrine with two entrances – Janana (birth) entrance and Marana (death) entrance. Shiva suggested to them to enter and exit through this passage many times to get rid of their sins. Even today, devotees pass through these two entrances; one has to crawl to get in the Janana entrance and crawl again to get out of the Marana entrance.

Story of Poosalar:

There is a fascinating legend associated with this temple, It is said that when the date consecration of the Temple was just a day away, the joyous and pompous King Rajasimha had a dream where Lord Shiva appeared and expressed his inability to be present during consecration of the temple as he will be attending an another consecration on the same day of another ardent devotee, Poosalar. Rajasimha was asked to have the consecration on another day.

After he came out of the dream, He immediately ordered for culmination of the proceedings and started his search for the person named Poosalar. He was informed that Poosalar lived in a place called Thirunindravoor. When King personally arrived at Thirunindravoor and went about enquiring about Poosalar, he was mystified to know that Poosalar lived in Poverty and didn’t even have a proper place to live. On the question of a new temple, Villages were totally unaware of any sort of new temple coming up in the vicinity.

Even though Puzzled, Rajasimha having complete faith in Lord Shiva's words sought meeting Poosalar in person and was taken to him. He was meditating under a tree. After King informed Poosalar of reason behind his presence, Poosalar face was brimming with happiness. What Poosalar told next surprised everybody in vicinity in particular King. He informed that the he was indeed building a temple for the Lord but that temple was in his heart and that he had planned to consecrate the lord in the temple on the day when King Rajasimha had planned. Infact Poosalar was building step by step a grand temple in his heart and Mind.

Listening to Poosalar, the king realized his mistake of being egoistic. Lord had enlightened him on the power of pure devotion which is devoid of any grandeur or riches. Rajasimha took the task of building exact replica of temple that Poosalar had in his mind and gave the name 'Hrudhayaleeswarar' (One Who lives in Heart) to deity).
This act of pure devotion had placed Poosalar and Rajasimha among the Sixty four Nayanmars (Ardent Shiva Devotes in the Periyapuranam).