Idar Theertha Perumal Temple, Vadiveeswaram,
Kanyakumari
Idar Theertha Perumal Temple is a Hindu Temple dedicated
to Lord Vishnu located at Vadiveeswaram Village, now part of the town of Nagercoil in Kanyakumari District of Tamilnadu. The name
implies that, the god will remove the obstacles in life. The village was
originally an agraharam, or a traditional double
line of houses occupied by Brahmins and flanking a temple or pair of temples.
It is most famous as the birthplace of Neelakanta Sivan, a well-known
19th-century composer.
The name Vadiveeswaram is a compound of the words Vadivu,
which means 'beauty' and Easwaran, an appellation of the God Shiva, in Tamil. The name thus
means the beauty of Shiva, which could refer either to the area or to the
presiding goddess of the Azhagamman
Temple, a Hindu Saivite temple situated in
the north-east corner of the village.
Carnatic composer Neelakanta
Sivan was born in Vadiveeswaram in 1839. He mentioned his birthplace twice in
his work Thiruneelakanta Botham. A festival of Carnatic music was
held in the village in 2007. The Temple is located at about 4 Kms from
Nagercoil, 650 meters from Nagercoil Bus Stand, 700 meters from Nagercoil
Railway Station, 6 Kms from Suchindrum, 19 Kms from Kanyakumari, 12 Kms from Boothapandi,
17 Kms from Thuckalay and 75 Kms from Thiruvananthapuram. Nearest Railway
Station is located at Nagercoil and Nearest Airport is located at Thiruvananthapuram.
