Jalakandeswarar Temple – Legends
Jalakandeswarar:
There
was an ant-hill (a sand mount made by white ants having many holes housing
snakes inside called Pampu Puttru in Tamil) in the place where the sanctum
sanctorum of Jalakandeswarar exists now. Rain waters in the lower levels of the
anthill made a tank there. There was also a Shivalinga under the water of the
tank. Lord Shiva appeared in the dream of a chieftain Bommi Reddy who was
ruling the region and asked him to build a temple there. The king went to the
tank, demolished the ant-hill and took out the Shivalinga and installed the
Lord in the water itself. As the Lord was installed in a place surrounded
by Jalam (Water), He is named Jalakandeswarar.
Lord directing Bommi Nayaka on Temple Construction:
Sthala Purana
says Athri muni installed a Siva Lingam in this place and worshiped. After
he left, without proper maintenance the Siva Lingam in the temple was
covered by Puttru (valmeegam). King Bommi constructed a temple for Lord
Siva as he was guided by Lord in his dream. Initially the King fixed a
date for starting the construction work. He overheard the conversation between
Sculpturer and his son. He came to know from their conversation, the day they
have chosen to start the work was not auspicious. So he prayed Lord
Siva to guide him.
Lord
told him to approach the same persons, to suggest a remedy for this. He was
asked to build temple within a Fort with moats (Agazhi). King did as
he was guided and installed Siva Lingam known as Jalakandeswarar and his
consort Goddess Akilandeswari in separate sanctum. The temple flourished
well up to the invasion of Mogul period. During this period, devotees out of
fear shifted Siva Lingam to a nearby place Sathuvacheri, Vellore town. All
these years there was no deity in the temple. With efforts of many devotees,
Siva Lingam from Sathuvacheri was shifted to Vellore and installed once again
on 16th March 1981.
