Friday, March 10, 2017

Ammai Nathar Temple, Cheranmahadevi – The Temple

Ammai Nathar Temple, Cheranmahadevi – The Temple
The east facing temple has a recently renovated simple five-tier tower and it is 63 feet high. The usual stucco images are not found in the tower. It is located at the outskirts of Cheranmahadevi amidst banana fields. Vimana is made up of brick. The Temple is full of beautiful relief and bas-relief images. Theertham (Holy water) is River Thamirabarani and the place is considered as Thingal Sthalam (Moon).





The area that connects the main shrine and the tower has its roof covered and has many pillars. The Bali peetha, Nandi mandapa and flag staff are located in this hall. Unlike other regions, some of the temples in this region have flag staff between Nandi and the main shrine. In this temple too, the flag staff is positioned similarly.





The main shrine has slightly bigger Shiva Linga named as Ammai Nathar or Kailasanathar.  Lord is Swayambumurthy. The entrance of ardha mandapa has a Ganesha idol in addition to Dwarapalas. The Nandi idol in maha mandapa is slightly moved from the center. In the flag staff, the bas relief image of Nandanar is found. The pillars in the exterior mandapa of the main shrine are carved with beautiful sculptures. It is built as per 'maada kovil' architectural style. The walls of main shrine are artistically brilliant and intricately decorated.




The Goddess Aavudai Nayaki is found in a separate shrine on the right side of the main shrine. It is equally bigger in size with all the three sections and even Nandi facing towards the Goddess. Mother is also called as Oppila Nayagi Amman (the one with no comparison).




The inner prakara has Dhakshinamoorthi sculpture as the niche image. Apart from that the sub-shrines of Ganesha, Subramanya-Valli-Devasena and Chandikeswara are located. Some of the idols that are found in the inner prakara include Sapta matas, Jwara Deva, Viswanathar, Natarajar, Karaikkal Ammaiyar, Nava kanniar Nalvar, Vishnu, Gaja Lakshmi, Surya, Chandra and Adhikara Nandi.




Bhairava sub-shrine and Shasta sub-shrine are located in the outer prakara which is full of trees and plants. There was no Navagraha shrine in this temple since the Navakailasam represents the 9 Navagrahas. However a Navagraha shrine has been constructed recently.