Dhatreeswarar Temple, Sitharkadu – The Temple
The east
facing temple has a beautiful five tier Rajagopuram. The idols of Ganesha and
Kartikeya are found at the entrance wall below the tower. The bali peetha, tall
flag staff and Nandi mandap are found facing towards the sanctum. The
speciality of the temple is the absence of the nose rope to tie down Nandhi,
the bull and the Vaahana of Lord Shiva, since Nandhi appears calm and relaxed
on its own.
Presiding
Deity is called as Dhatreeswarar / Nelliyappar. Sanctum housing the presiding
deity faces east. The sculptures of Nardana Ganapati, Dhakshina Moorthy,
Vishnu, Brahma and Durga are found as the niche idols around the sanctum wall.
Chandikeswara is found in his usual location. Mother is called as Prasunakundalambikai
/ Poonkuzhali Ambal / Kundhalambigai. She is housed in a separate south facing
shrine.
There
are shrines of Ganesha and Murugan with his two consorts Valli and Deivanai in
the prakaram. Nataraja-Sivakami is found in a separate shrine. There is a
separate shrine enshrining the beautiful metal idols of Somaskanda and one more
shrine is dedicated for all other Utsava idols. There are shrines for Shankaracharya,
Saraswathi, Veera Bhadra, Adhikara Nandhi and Mahalakshmi in the temple premises.
Navadevathas
are installed separately outside the prakaram on the south-east side. The
Gudhirai Sokkar idol and Karaikkal Ammaiyar idol in the form of a Ghost are
found in this temple made of Panchaloka. The temple has a lot of pillars that
contain beautiful relief images. Some of the relief images include the images
related to Vaishnavism such as different forms of Vishnu and Dasavathara, which
is rare to find in a Shiva temple.
Also, a
lot of Siddhas relief images are found in the walls and pillars of this temple. The pillars in the temple have images of siddhars such as
Padukkai Jatamudi Siddhar and Prana Dipika Siddhar. The latter is worshipped
for long life. Those afflicted with heart ailment light ghee lamps for him.
One more interesting feature of the temple is the sculptures on the ceilings.
Especially,
the ceiling in the Maha Mandapam has a slab with Linga in the center and a lot
of deities around him in all the four directions. It looks very intricate and
attractive. Sthala Vriksham is Gooseberry. The temple complex has Koovalam tree
and Naga Pushpa tree. There is a large pond with steps on all sides serves as Theertham
of this Temple.
