Friday, December 15, 2017

Velleeswarar Temple, Mylapore – The Temple

Velleeswarar Temple, Mylapore – The Temple
The south facing temple has a five-tiered Raja Gopuram (tower). The stucco images depicting the stories related to this temple such as rat worshiping Shiv Linga, Vamana with Mahabali and others are found on the tower. Although the presiding deity of the temple is Shiva, the shrine that faces the entrance has Ganesha. There are people who claim that this temple had only Ganesh shrine in the beginning and later it was extended to add the shrines of Shiva and others. Selva Vinayakar is found seated; behind him Ganesh with his two consorts Siddhi and Buddhi are found in the standing posture in this shrine. It is a rare posture.



The presiding deity Velleeswarar is found as a small Shiva Linga in the east facing shrine. The images of Dwarapalas are found at the entrance of this shrine. Nandi is found facing towards the direction of this shrine. The flag staff, bali peetha and Nandi Mandapam are found in the outer corridor. Ganesha, Dakshina Murti, Lingodhbava, Brahma and Durga are found as the Koshta (niche) idols on the outer wall of the Velleeswarar shrine. Chandikeswara is found near Brahma, as usual.



Mother is called as Kamakshi. The Goddess Kamakshi is found in a separate south facing shrine located at the right side of the sanctum. This idol is like the Goddess Kamakshi temple at Kanchi. Idols of Saptamathrika's can be found in the inner prakaram. Goddess Varahi is much venerated here. There was an Idol of Lord Vishnu in Trivikrama posture behind Lord Shiva Shrine, and Devi Durga (facing north).



The prakara has so many sub-shrines and idols. The idols of Ganesh, Sekkizhar, Mei Kanda Sivam and three other saints, Nalvar, Ulagalandha Perumal, Bhairava, Surya, Veerabhadra, Lakshmi and Saraswathi are found. The sub-shrines of Sapta Matas, Muthukumara Swami with Valli-Devasena, the Utsava Murtis of Muthukumara Swami-Valli-Devasena, the big Utsava Murtis of Nataraja-Sivakami-Manickavasagar, the Utsava Murtis of Somaskanda, Vishwanathar (small Linga) and Annamalai (big Linga)-Unnamalai are all found in the prakara.



Navagraha shrine is found in the outer region. Saneeswara is found in a separate sub-shrine nearby. There is a small Shiva Linga named as Sukreshwara. Sukra is found worshiping this Linga. The newly constructed Sarabeswara sub-shrine flanked by the shrines of Prathyangira and Shoolini is a major attraction of the temple in the recent times. Stucco image of Ekapatha Moorthy (one leg, Shiva at the centre, Brahma and Vishnu on both sides above hip) can be seen in the front mandapam near Kodimaram.



The small bronze images of Vyagrapada and Patanjali are also located in the sub-shrine of Nataraja. The sub-shrine of Muthukumara Swami has its own flag staff. Even Kamakshi does not have a separate flag staff. There is another bigger sub-shrine which has all the remaining bronze images such as Ganesha, Murugan-Valli-Devasena, Nataraja-Sivakami, Uma-Chandrasekhar, Nalvar, Ulagalandha Perumal and others. It is very rare to find an idol of Lord Brahma as Urchavar in a temple. Most likely, this is the only temple where Lord Brahma is present as a Urchavar (Idol form carried during processions). All the bronze idols of the temple look very attractive.