Madurantaka Choleeswarar Temple, Thozhuthur – The
Temple
The Temple is facing towards east with an entrance arch facing
south direction. Nandi, housed in a mandapam, and Balipeedam can be found in
the prakaram facing the sanctum. The Temple consists of Sanctum, Artha Mandapam
and Maha Mandapam. Presiding Deity is called as Madurantaka Choleeswarar / Madurantaka Chozheeswara Mudaiya Nayanar and is facing
east. He is housed in the sanctum in the form of Lingam.
Uchchhishta Ganapathy, Dakshinamoorthy, Lingodbhava,
Durga and Brahma are the Koshta Idols located around the sanctum walls. Mother
is called as Periyanayaki / Brihannayaki. She is housed in a separate south
facing shrine. Her shrine is situated in Maha Mandapam to the right side of
sanctum. She is having a third eye in her forehead like Lord Shiva.
There is a shrine for Vinayaga with a mango in his left
hand in the temple premises. This shrine is frequented by students for scoring
good marks in their education. There is a shrine for Lord Subramaniya Swamy
next to Vinayaga Shrine. He is gracing the devotees along with his consorts Valli
and Devasena. He holds bow, arrow, conch and discus apart from spear among his
twelve hands.
Navagrahas are represented in the form of pits in this
temple. It is a unique feature that can be seen only in this temple. There are
shrines for Gajalakshmi, Surya, Chandikeswarar and Bhairava in the temple
premises. Bronze idol of Nataraja of this temple is most beautiful and exquisite
specimen of the Chola sculptural master piece. Snakes can be seen on either
sides of his hair locks and presence of Gandharvas on Thiruvasi.
There is another bronze idol of Lord Murugan with Bala
Dhandayudhapani on his spear. There are three inscriptions found in this
Temple. All the three inscriptions were dated to Kulothunga Chola III. These
inscriptions talks about the construction of this Temple and grants given to
this Temple.
