Arunachaleswarar Temple, Sowcarpet, George Town – The
Temple
The
temple is facing east with a 5 tier Rajagopuram. Anuputhi mandapam is situated
immediately after entering the Rajagopuram and the main sanctum is situated on
the left side of this Mandapam. Balipeedam, Dwajasthambam and Nandhi Mandapam
are located at the entrance immediately after Rajagopuram found facing towards
sanctum.
Presiding
Diety is called as Arunachaleswarar / Annamalaiyar and is facing east. The
presiding deity installed in the temple is a Bana Linga brought from Kasi now
Varanasi. Vinayagar, Dhakshinamoorthy, Vishnu (in place of Lingothbavar),
Brahma and Durgai are the niche idols located around sanctum walls. Chandikeswara
can also be found in his usual location. The entrance has the idols of Ganesha
and Murugan.
The
idols of Surya and Bhairava are also found in the section dedicated to
Annamalai. Mother is called as Abithakusambigai /
Unnamulai Amman / Abidakujambal. She is housed in a separate south facing
shrine in the inner prakaram. Mother Shrine is located adjacent to the sanctum.
The idol of Mother is gigantic.
Sabha Mandapam housing Nataraja
with his consort Sivakami and Palli Yarai are located in the inner prakaram. Additionally,
there are two shrines with big idols of Mahishasura Mardhini and Varahi, which
are quite popular in this region. Though a Shiva temple, with due respect to
Vaishnavism, there is a shrine for Lord Varadaraja Perumal with his consorts
Sridevi and Bhoodevi. This Shrine is situated to the left side of the entrance
in the outer prakaram. Garuda is found facing this shrine.
The shrines of Hanuman and big
idol of Vijaya Vinayaka can be found in the outer prakaram. There is a separate
shrine for Lord Shanmukha (the six headed Skanda) along with his consorts Valli
and Devasena. The idol where the Goddess is found hugging the Shiv Linga is an
interesting one. While Lord Muruga is on his peacock vahana, his consorts Valli
and Deivanai are on an elephant vahana. This is a different feature in this
temple.
There are shrines and Idols of
Navagrahas, Chandran, Suryan, Naalvar, Viswanatha with his consort Visalakshi
and Somaskanda in the Temple premises. A significant observation in almost all
temples in the area is the presence of many Naagar (Snake) idols in different forms in regular
worship.
