Friday, December 15, 2017

Veerabhadra Swamy Temple, Mylapore, Chennai

Veerabhadra Swamy Temple, Mylapore, Chennai
Veerabhadra Swami Temple is a Hindu Temple located near Madhava Perumal Temple in VSV Koil Street in Mylapore in Chennai City in Tamilnadu. Generally, Veerabhadra Swami in Lord Shiva temples has a different shrine other than the main deity. With the main deity Veerabhadra Swami, this temple in Mylapore is one of the rare temples dedicated to Veerabhadra.

Legends
According to Hindu mythology, Veerabhadra is a God, who was born out of Lord Shiva's wrath to destroy Daksha. In all ancient South Indian Shiva temples, you can find the idol of Veerabhadra. However, it is very rare to find the temples with Veerabhadra as the presiding deity. There is one such rare temple dedicated to Veerabhadra in Mylapore area of Chennai in South India.

The Temple
The north facing temple does not have a tower but just an arch at the entrance. The north facing sanctum enshrines the big idol of the presiding deity, Veerabhadra who is found along with the small image of goat headed Daksha. In Maha Mandapam, the shorter flag staff, bali peetha and Nandi are found facing towards the sanctum. Small shrines of Bala Vinayaka and Subramanya are located on either side of the main shrine. The Goddess of the temple is Abhayambikai who is found in a separate shrine adjacent to the sanctum.

There are so many small sub-shrines located on either side of the sanctum. Some of the other shrines that are found near the sanctum include Virupaksha-Vishalakshi, Sivasundara Vinayaka, Sarabeswarar, Murugan-Valli-Devasena, Perumal and Adi Shankaracharya. At the entrance of the Maha Mandapam, the idols of Bala Vinayaka and Bala Murugan are located. The prakara around the sanctum has few shrines such as Dyana Anjaneya, Saneeswara, Navagraha, Vishnu Durga, Shiva Durga, Chandikeswara and Dhakshinamoorthi.

Some of the idols that are found in the temple are;
1)   Ganesha, Shiv Linga and Nandi under a tree
2)   Palani and Mariamman idols under another tree
3)   Ganesha reading a book (rare idol)
4)   Ganesha in relaxing posture (different posture - rare idol)
Prayers
It is believed that if you perform pooja with water and Vilva Bhadra leaves to Veerabhadra Swami on Ashtami Tithi, he will be pleased and your desires will be fulfilled.
Connectivity
For brief details, please refer below link;