Madhyarjuneshwar Temple, Pettavaithalai – The Temple
The
Temple is east facing with five tiered Rajagopuram. The idol of Ganesha and
Vishnu-Sri Devi-Bhoo Devi along with Garuda are located at the temple entrance.
These ancient idols were excavated from a field in this town. They do not
belong to this temple. Along with these idols, an idol of a Jain deity was also
excavated. However, that idol is currently not found here. It is said that the
idol was moved to some other temple or museum.
The east
facing sanctum with a beautiful Vimana enshrines a big Shiva Linga named
as Madhyarjuneshwar. The entrance of the sanctum has two medium sized
beautiful sculptures of Dwarapalas. In the Maha Mandapam, Nandi is found facing
towards Shiva. Nardana Ganapati, Dakshina Murti, Lingodhbava, Brahma and Durga
are found as the Koshta Murtis on the outer walls of the sanctum.
Nardana
Ganapati has his head turned towards his true right side, which is not usual. Dhakshinamoorthi’s
right arm is in Abhaya mudra, which is unique. The idols of Lingodhbava and
Brahma do not appear to be original. They must have been sculpted very
recently. Brahma is found in the sitting posture, which is again an unusual posture
for a Koshta Brahma.
The
Goddess of the temple, Balambika, is found in a separate south facing shrine. The
tall wooden flag staff, bali peetha and Nandi are found in the courtyard. Surya
and Chandra are found on either sides of Nandi and they face towards the
sanctum. In a sub-shrine in Ardha mandapam, all bronze idols of the temple such
as Ganesh, Subramanya with his consorts, Uma and Chandrashekhar and others are
located.
In the
Maha Mandapam, the sub-shrine enshrining the small bronze idols of Nataraja and
Sivakami is located. There were 2 huge panels of ancient epitaphs in Ardha
Mandapam recently discovered by the archeologists from nearby town, Bhavani. The
placement of Naalvar sculptures was so perfect in front of a low window in the
ardha mandapam. It looked like a halo behind them.
In the
front-side mandapam, there are many sculptures found in the pillars. Two
sculptures among them are notable. One is the sculpture of Brahma hatya
dosh. Another is the sculpture of Pottralam Poovai Siddhar was an ancient
medic who found several medicines especially for women’s health issues. Till
date, it is believed that a sincere prayer to him would cure women’s health
issues like menstrual problems, menopause problems, and pregnancy related
issues. The Jeeva samadhi of Potralam Poovai Siddhar is present here.
Shrines
of Ganesha, Surya, Chandra, Subramanya-Valli-Devasena, Gaja Lakshmi, Bitchadanar,
Mahalakshmi, Chandikeswara and Navagraha can be seen in the inner prakaram. An
ancient Bhikshatana idol is found along with the idols of Linga and Saraswathi
in the temple. A six feet tall ancient idol of Vishnu is located at the
entrance of the shrine of Gaja Lakshmi. It does not belong originally to the
temple. It is also excavated from somewhere in this town. On the way to this
temple from the High Way, a local temple with a tall stucco idol of Hanuman is
found.