Dhenupureeswarar Temple, Madambakkam – Legends
Dhenupureeswarar:
Emperor Sagara performed a great Ashwamedha Yagna and
sent his Royal horse alone to go around the world. According to
traditional rules of the yagna, the horse thus sent should return to the
starting point victoriously without being captured by anybody. Indira,
jealous of Sagara caught the horse and tied near sage Kabila who was in penance
then. Sagara’s son seeing the horse, suspecting that Kabila had captured the
horse, began to torture the sage, who, on opening his eyes cursed him.
The curse continued to affect the succeeding generations of Sagara.
As advised by Guru Sage Vasishta, King Bhagiratha, belonging
to the subsequent generation performed severe penance, brought River Ganga to
Earth, performed Shiva Puja, relieved all his ancestors from the grip of the
curse and liberated himself also from the curse. Sage Kabila too, felt very
much that he had cursed the Sagara dynasty. He began to worship Lord
Shiva to atone for the sin of cursing the Sagara family and to attain
salvation. He held a Shivalinga on the Left hand and offered flowers by
the right hand.
Lord Shiva appeared before the sage and asked him why he
was following a strange type of Puja. Kabila said that considering the
sanctity of the Lord, he did not like to place it on impure earth. Lord
Shiva told him that he was in many places on earth and there was no such part
not loved by him and said what the sage did was not right. He told the
sage to be born on earth as a cow, worship him as a Swayambu Linga and attain
salvation. So, saying the Lord disappeared. Sage Kabila, as ordained by
Lord Shiva was born a cow. He was pouring the milk on a Shivalinga in a hidden
place.
The shepherd threw a stone on the cow. It did not
move. Then he pinned on the milking part of the cow. Unable to bear
the pain, the cow moved. While moving, the rear leg of the cow hit on the Linga
from where blood came out. The shepherd fainted on seeing this. Lord
Shiva appeared before Kabila the Cow. Kabila was absorbed within the
Linga. As Kabila in his cow form (Cow means Dhenu or Kamadenu in Sanskrit)
worshipped the Lord, He is known as Dhenupureeswarar.
The people went and informed the incident to the Chola King
who was coming downside of Sitreri. He visited the site and arranged to
construct a temple for Lord Shiva there and the God was then known as
Sittrerinathar and Goddess, Nambirattiyar. The place where people met the king
downside the lake is today’s Rajakizhpakkam. And the village Sitreri (means
small lake) is now called as Madambakkam.
Indra got relieved of Sage
Agasthya Curse:
As per another legend, the sage Agastya cursed Indra
once. Later, as per the advice from Agastya, he came to this site and worshiped
the deity to get rid of his sin. The day when he got rid of his curse is Chitra
Poornima.