Friday, June 9, 2017

Sukshmapureeswarar Temple, Cherugudi – Legends

Sukshmapureeswarar Temple, Cherugudi – Legends

Sukshmapureeswarar:

Once, Lord Shiva and Mother Parvathy were playing dice in Mount Kailash. When Mother Parvathy was about to win the game, Lord Shiva suddenly disappeared. Mother Parvathy was searching for him everywhere, but she was not able to find him. Finally, she came to this place dense with Vilwa trees. She created the Mangala Theertham, made a Lingam with a handful of sand and worshipped it. Pleased with her prayers, Lord Shiva appeared before Mother Parvathy and took her back to Kailash.

As the Lingam is made of sand, abhishekam is performed only to the Avudaiyar. As Mother Parvathy created the Lingam with handful of sand, this place came to be called as Siru Pidi (handful in Tamil) and later got corrupted to Sirukudi. The hand imprints of Mother Parvathy can still be seen on the Lingam during Aarthi. As Lord Shiva disappeared suddenly and appeared here, he came to be called as Sukshmapureeswarar.

Kolaru Pathigam:

As per legend, Koon Pandyan, the reigning King of Madurai got converted to Jainism under the influence of Jain monks. Mangayarkkarasiyar, Queen of Pandyan King sought the help of Appar and Sambandar for reconverting his husband back to Shaivism from Jainism. Appar and Sambandar accepted the Queen's request and decided to visit Madurai for helping the queen. They were staying together at this place during that time. As Appar felt that the time was not auspicious and very unfavourable due to the planetary positions, he advised Sambandar to postpone the trip.

Thirugnana Sambandar said that the planets could not do anything to the devotees of Lord Shiva. Then, Thirugnana Sambandar sang the Kolaru Pathigam to nullify the ill effects due to the planetary positions and left for Madurai. He reached Madurai safely and won against the Jains. He also cured his hunched back of Koon Pandyan. Thus, Thirugnana Sambandar can be seen among the planets in this temple. Bhairava and Vinayaga are also seen along with them.

Angaragan got relief from his curse here:

As per legend, Angaragan (Planet Mars) got relief from his curse by worshipping Lord Shiva of this temple.

People worshipped Lord Shiva here:

Sage Viswamitra, Garudan, Angarakan, Suryan and Gandharvas had worshipped Lord Shiva in this temple.