Friday, December 15, 2017

Vaaleeswarar Temple, Mylapore – The Temple

Vaaleeswarar Temple, Mylapore – The Temple
The east facing temple has narrow entrance and has no tower. The temple is probably Chola period temple. The east facing sanctum enshrines Shiva Linga called as Vaaleeswarar. The rays of the sun fall on the idol on certain days in the Tamil month of Chithirai (April-May). In Ardha Mandapam, Vaali is found with this hand folded and worshiping Shiva. Nardana Ganapati, Dhakshina Moorthy, Lingodhbava, Brahma and Durga are found as the Koshta idols of the temple.









The entrance of the sanctum has the idols of Ganesh and Palani. In the Maha Mandapam, the Goddess Periya Nayaki is found in a separate south facing shrine. The name is Periya (big) Nayaki, but her idol is very small in size. The courtyard which has both the shrines of Vaaleeswarar and Periya Nayaki has the idols of Ganesh and Murugan at its entrance. There is no flagstaff. But the bali peetha and Nandi are found facing towards the sanctum. Inside the Maha Mandapam, there is another idol of Nandi found.







Another important shrine of the temple is Pancha Linga shrine. There are five Shiva Lingas found together. Although there are no records, it is widely believed that a Siddha's Jeeva Samadhi is located below these Lingas. Pancha lingams came out from the earth as seen in a separate shrine. Stucco images of 22 Siddhars can be found in the Vimanam and the Vimanam is of North Indian style.







The sub shrines of Ganesha, Nataraja, Sivagami, Chandikeswarar, Vishnu, Durga, Subramanya-Valli-Devasena, Ayyappa, Arunagirinathar, Saneeswarar, Navagrahas (nine planets) with their respective vahanas (vehicles), Veerabhagu, Bhairava, Nalvar, Surya, Chandra and Hanuman are all found in the prakara. In the southwest of the outer praharam (corridor), a lizard has been carved to indicate that this is a Parihara Sthalam (place for removing one’s curse).