Swetharanyeswarar Temple, Thiruvenkadu – Legends

Swetharanyeswarar Temple, Thiruvenkadu – Legends

 Aghora Moorthy:

As per legend, a demon named Maruthuva Asura defeated the devas with the boons he got from Lord Brahma. The devas approached Lord Shiva for protection. He advised them to live at Thiruvenkadu in disguise. After knowing their disguise, he came to Thiruvenkadu and started harassing the devas. The devas prayed to Lord Shiva again. He sent Nandi to fight the demon. Nandi defeated the demon and threw him into the sea. The defeat did not deter the demon.

He again started his intense penance on Lord Shiva and received the divine Trisula. The demon returned with greater intensity and started harassing the devas again. Once again Lord Shiva sent Nandi to fight with the demon. Nandi could not able to fight the demon as he possessed the Trisula of Lord Shiva. The demon hit Nandi in nine places with the trident in the ensuing fight. The injury marks could be seen on nine spots on the Nandi in this temple.

This enraged Lord Shiva and he took his incarnation Aghora Moorthy and killed the demon under a Vanni tree. This Vanni tree could be seen near the Aghora Moorthy shrine. This form of Lord Shiva could be seen only in this temple. It is believed that Lord Shiva destroyed the demon on a Pooram star day on a Sunday. Special poojas are performed on these days. It is believed that those who worship Aghora Moorthy would not be having any enemies.

Brahma Samadhu:

As per legend, Brahma, the Hindu god of creation, disrespected Muruga (the son of Shiva) at the time of visiting Mount Kailash, the abode of Shiva. The child Muruga got angry with Brahma and asked him how he was creating living beings. Brahma said that he was creating living beings with the help of the Vedas (Hindu scriptures). On hearing the reply, Muruga asked Brahma to recite the texts from Vedas. Brahma started to recite the text with the holy word called Pranava Mantra, "Om".

At that time Muruga stopped Brahma and asked him to explain the meaning of the Pranava Mantra. Brahma could not reply and hence Muruga knocked Brahma on his forehead with his clenched fists and punished him with imprisonment. Lord Muruga took up the role of the creator. The Devas (celestial deities) were surprised by the absence of Brahma and they requested Vishnu to negotiate with Muruga to release Brahma. Vishnu could not help and as the last resort, Lord Shiva went to the rescue of Brahma.

Lord Shiva came to Muruga and asked him to release Brahma from imprisonment. Muruga refused to release him stating Brahma was unaware of the meaning of the Pranava Mantra (AUM). Lord Shiva asked Muruga to explain the meaning and Muruga extolled to Lord Shiva the meaning of the Pranava Mantra. Lord Shiva behaved like a student to a teacher, listening with rapt attention from his son, giving Muruga the name Swaminatha Swami (The Teacher of Lord Shiva). 

Lord Shiva explained Lord Muruga about the importance of the activities of Lord Brahma. The entire activities of Lord Brahma were on hold due to his captivity. Finally, Lord Murugan agreed to release Lord Brahma but Lord Brahma forgot the Brahma Gnana due to his captivity. It is believed that Lord Brahma came to this place and performed intense penance in order to regain his lost memory. The penance undertaken by Lord Brahma was called as Samadhu Nilai (by holding his breath).

Lord Shiva was pleased with penance, appeared before him in the form of Dakshinamoorthy and taught him Brahma Gnana again. In memory of this event, there is a separate shrine called Brahma Samadhu in the temple premises. It is also believed that Goddess Parvati taught Brahma Kalai (arts of Brahma) to Lord Brahma. Hence, Goddess Parvati came to be called as Brahma Vidyambigai.

Indra Theertham & Yanai Madu:

Indra, the King of Svarga, was riding on his divine elephant, Airavata, when he came across the sage Durvasa, who offered him a special garland given to him by an apsara. Indra accepted the garland and placed it on the trunk of Airavata. The flowers had a strong scent that attracted some bees. Annoyed by the bees, the elephant threw the garland on the ground and trampled the garland. This enraged the sage, as the garland was a dwelling of Sri (fortune) and was to be treated as a prasada or a religious offering. Durvasa cursed Indra to be bereft of all strength, energy, and fortune. He also cursed the Airavata to become a forest elephant.

Indra dug a pond in this temple. He took a holy bath and prayed to Lord Shiva for relief from the curse of Sage Durvasa. The pond dug by him came to be called as Indra Theertham. Due to the curse of Sage Durvasa, Airavata roamed in the forest of Thiruvenkadu for certain time. It dug a pond at the esanya direction of Thiruvenkadu and installed a Shiva Linga. The elephant worshipped the Linga sincerely and got relief from its curse and reached Indraloka. The pond dug by the Airavata came to be called as Yanai Madu.

Bhudhan Sthalam:

As per legend, Tara was the wife of Brihaspati, the guru of Devas. She felt being ignored by her husband as she found her husband spending most of his time with the problems and matters of devas. One day, Chandra, the moon god visited Brihaspati. Chandra was enamoured with the beauty of Tara. Tara also saw Chandra and she was attracted to him. After some time, Tara eloped with Chandra. Brihaspati was infuriated and demanded Chandra to return his wife. Chandra told Brihaspati that Tara was happy and satisfied with him.

He told that how can an old man be husband of a young woman. This made Brihaspati more annoyed and he warned Chandra for battle. Indra and other devas gathered to fight a war. Chandra was not ready to give Tara back and he took help from the asuras and their preceptor, Sukra. The devas were assisted by Shiva and his companions. Devas and Asuras were about to fight a war, but Lord Shiva stopped them and convinced Chandra to return Tara. After some time, Brihaspati found out that Tara was pregnant and questioned her who the father of the child was.

But Tara remained silent. After the boy was born, both Chandra and Brihaspati claimed to be his father. At last, Tara revealed that he was the son of Chandra. The boy was named Budha. Sage Brihaspati could not tolerate the events and he cursed that the child that Chandra fathered will be neither male nor female but a neuter gender. Indra who witnessed this event chided sage Brihaspati and said that Budha will be known as son of Brihaspati.

When Budha came to know about his birth, he hated Chandra. He also felt that he was an unwanted child. He prayed to Lord Shiva for relief from the bad name caused due to his birth. Pleased with his prayers, Lord Shiva accorded him the status of a planet on par with Chandra and Guru in this temple. There is a separate shrine for Bhudhan in the third prakaram. It is a customary here to offer green colour cloth to Lord Budhan while making other offerings.

Lord Shiva marriage with Mathangi:

According to Hindu mythology, at the end of every Yuga, there is a huge flood called Maha Pralayam occurs and the whole world immerses in a deluge on account of the wrath of Hindu god Shiva for the sins committed by humans in earth. Once, Sage Mathanga, Maanseeka Putra of Lord Brahma came to earth during a maha pralaya. He found the earth was flooded with water and was searching for a suitable place to perform penance. He could not able to find a suitable place and sought the help of Sage Narada.

Narada suggested him to go to Swetha Vanam. He found a place and started his intense penance. To test his devotion, Lord Vishnu took the form of Mohini (enchantress) accompanied by Manmathan, the god of love, came to this place and tried to disturb his penance. Angered by their act, Sage Mathanga cursed Manmathan to be burnt to ashes by Lord Shiva. He then turned towards Mohini to curse her. Before, he could spell the curse, Lord Vishnu granted his darshan with conch and discus in Mohini form.

Sage Mathanga realized the enchantress is none other than Lord Vishnu himself. Sage Mathanga sought forgiveness from Lord Vishnu and continued with his penance and finally Lord Shiva appeared before him. Lord Shiva wanted to grant the boons desired by Sage Mathanga. However, Sage Mathanga did not want anything except to become a relative of Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva accepted his request and informed the sage that he would come at an appropriate time and would be his son-in-law. 

Sage Mathanga went to the Manikarunai river at Thirunangur for a bath on a Chitra Poornima day and found a female child floating on a lotus leaf. He took the child and brought her up like her own daughter. As she was brought up by Sage Mathanga, she came to be called as Mathangi / Raja Mathangi. When she attained the marriageable age, the sage reminded Lord Shiva about his promise. As promised, Lord Shiva came and married Mathangi at Thiruvenkadu.

Adi Chidambaram:

This temple is considered to be the Adi Chidambaram (First Chidambaram) because Lord Shiva was said to have danced first at this temple before dancing at Chidambaram. Lord Shiva performed seven forms of Tandavas called Ananda Thandavam, Sandhya Thandavam, Samhara Thandavam, Tripurantaka Thandavam, Urdhva Thandavam, Bhujanga Thandavam and Lalita Thandavam here. Lord Nataraja holds seven instruments here confirming that he had performed seven thandavams here.

Lord Shiva performed Anandha Thandavam here at the request of goddess Parvati. While dancing, three drops of water fell from his three eyes resulting in the formation of three theerthams namely Agni Theertham, Surya Theertham and Chandra Theertham. Like Govindaraja Perumal Temple inside Chidambaram Nataraja Temple, there is shrine for Vishnu called Swetha Vana Perumal in the temple premises. The temple pooja is similar to Chidambaram for Spadika Lingam and also has Chidambara Rahasyam.

Vedarasi got relief of brahmahatya dosha here:

Once, a brahmin named Vedarasi had placed his food in the hollow of a tree during his journey but he did not knew that a venomous snake lived in the hollow. The snake spewed its poison the food. The brahmin did not knew about the poisoned food and offered the food to a hungry vedic priest. The priest fell dead after consuming the food. Thus, Vedarasi was afflicted with brahmahatya dosha. He came to Thiruvenkadu, worshipped Lord Shiva of this temple and was absolved of his brahmahatya dosha.

Lord Yama was punished by Lord Shiva for trying to take the life of Sage Svetaketu:

As per legend, Sage Svetaketu was the son of sage Uddalaka. He was destined to die at the age of 8 similar to Sage Markandeya (who was destined to die at the age of 16). Sage Svetaketu  was an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva. He came to know about his death at the age of eight, so he came to Thiruvenkadu and was performing Shiva Pooja sincerely. Lord Yama came to take his life when he reached eight. He sprung his noose around the neck of the sage Svetaketu. Lord Shiva appeared and punished Yama for trying to take the life of Svetaketu. Lord Yama prayed to Lord Shiva here and was relieved of his curse.

Pillai Idukki Ambal:

When Sambandar visited Thiruvenkadu, he visualized Thiruvenkadu as Kailash and considered each sand particles as Shiva Lingams. Hence, he was afraid of walking over it. He called Mother Parvati as Ammaye and requested her to help him to have darshan of Lord Shiva. Seeing his cry, Mother Parvati came and carried child Sambandar on her hip to the temple. Thus, she came to be called as Pillai Idukki Ambal (Mother with child on her hip). The place from where Sambandar called Mother Parvati came to be called as Koopittan Kulam.

Thiruvenkadu:

Once, this place was surrounded by thick forests on all sides and when seen from a distance it used to look white and hence the place came to be called as Thiruvenkadu. The name Thiruvenkadu means sacred white forest in Tamil (Ven means white and Kadu means forest). It is called as Swetharanyam in Sanskrit (Swetam means white and Aranyam means forest).

Saint Meikandar:

Saint Meikandar was the first of the four Santhana Kuravars and the author of Shiva Gnana Bodham. He is believed to have been born by the grace of Lord Shiva of this temple.  His birth name was Swethavana Perumal. There is a shrine for the Meikandar on the banks of the Agni Theertham in the temple premises.

Indra Mahotsavam:

As per legend, Indra was afflicted with dosha for killing Viruthirasuran. He came to Thiruvenkadu and worshipped Lord Shiva of this temple for relief. Pleased with his worship, Lord Shiva provided relief to Indra. It is believed that the Mahotsavam held here is conducted by Lord Indra himself. The Mahotsavam is also praised as Indra Mahotsavam.

Saint Pattinatthar:

Thiruvenkadu was the birth place of the saint Pattinatthar. He was also called as Thiruvenkadar named after his native place, Thiruvenkadu. It is believed that Lord Shiva himself had given Shiva Deeksha to Saint Pattinathar in this temple.

Tiruvenkattu Nangai:

Thiruvenkadu is considered as the birth place of the wife of the Siruthondar, one of celebrated 63 Nayanars. Thus, she came to be referred as Tiruvenkattu Nangai after his birthplace.

Soma & Surya Theertham:

It is believed that Chandra (Soma) Theertham and the Surya Theertham were created by moon and sun gods respectively. It is said that the Soma Kundam and Surya Kundam mentioned in Silapathikaram refer to these tanks.

Other Names of Thiruvenkadu:

Thiruvenkadu is also called as Swetharanyam, Gnana Aranya, Patala Kailasa and Aadi Chidambaram.

People worshipped Lord Shiva here:

It is believed that Lord Vishnu, Lord Brahma, Indra, Airavata, Devas, Budhan, Surya, Chandran, Agni, Yama, Svetaketu, Kalabhara King Achutha Kalappalan, Meikandar, Sveta, Agastya, Narada, Vyagrapada, Pattinathar, Shivapiriyar, Tiruvenkattu Nangai, Vedarasi, Sekkizhar, Sambandar, Sundarar and Appar had worshipped Lord Shiva here.