Nagabharaneeswarar Temple, Melaiyur, Chengalpattu

Nagabharaneeswarar Temple, Melaiyur, Chengalpattu

Nagabharaneeswarar Temple is a Hindu Temple dedicated to Lord Shiva located in Melaiyur Village in Thiruporur Taluk in Chengalpattu District of Tamil Nadu. Presiding deity is called as Nagabharaneeswarar and Mother is called as Periyanayaki. The temple is considered as Rahu & Ketu parihara sthalam.

Legends

As per legend, Sage Agastya visited this temple and worshipped Lord Shiva here.

History

The temple is believed to be built by Chola Emperor Rajaraja Chola (947 CE – 1014 CE) as per an inscription found in this temple. The temple was in dilapidated stated in 2002. The locals with help of philanthropist rebuilt this temple and consecrated in 2008.

The Temple

This temple is facing towards east with three tiered rajagopuram. Balipeedam, Dhwaja Sthambam and Nandi can be found immediately after the rajagopuram facing towards the sanctum. The temple consists of sanctum, antrala, maha mandapam and mukha mandapam. Presiding deity is called as Nagabharaneeswarar and is facing east. He is housed in the sanctum in the form of Shiva Lingam. Lord is a Swayambhu Moorthy (self-manifested).Nardana Ganapathy, Dakshinamurthy, Vishnu, Brahma and Durga are the koshta idols located around the sanctum walls.

Chandikeswarar shrine can be seen in his usual location. The vimana, structure over the sanctum is in the form of Gajabrusta, the shape of an elephant in its sitting posture. Mother is called as Periyanayaki. She is housed in a separate south facing shrine. There is a shrine for Kasi Viswanathar with his consort Visalakshi adjacent to the sanctum. There is a shrine for Varadaraja Perumal with his consorts Sridevi and Bhoodevi in the temple premises. Garuda can be seen facing this shrine.

Shrines of Valampuri Vinayaka, Anjaneya, Krishna with his consorts Rukmini & Sathyabama, Ayyappan, Murugan with his consorts Valli & Devasena, Mahalakshmi, Agastya, Lalithambigai, Tripura Sundari, Brahma with his Saraswathi, Chitragupta, Nataraja, Sarabeswarar, Bhairavar, Dattatreya, Sapta Matrikas and Navagrahas with their respective consorts can be seen in the temple premises. The temple tank is situated behind the temple. Sthala Vriksham is Tamarind Tree.

Festivals

Krithikai, Sashti, Pradosham and Pournami are the festivals celebrated here.

Prayers

This temple is considered as parihara sthalam for Rahu and Ketu doshas. Devotees pray here to remove obstacles in marriage alliances and for child boon.

Contact

Nagabharaneeswarar Temple,

Melaiyur – 603 108

Thiruporur Taluk,

Chengalpattu District

Mobile: +91 94980 36642 / 97906 53618 / 90947 34948

Connectivity

The temple is located at about 750 metres from Melaiyur Bus Stop, 5 Kms from Karumbakkam, 13 Kms from Thiruporur Bus Stand, 14 Kms from Thiruporur, 17 Kms from Chengalpattu, 19 Kms from Chengalpattu Junction, 29 Kms from Tambaram, 37 Kms from Chennai Airport and 58 Kms from Chennai. The temple is situated at about 3 Kms from Vengur Junction on Thiruporur to Chengalpattu route. Bus No 55 C plying between Tambaram and Karumbakkam passes through this place.

Location

Adhi Kesava Perumal Temple, Koovathur – The Temple

Adhi Kesava Perumal Temple, Koovathur – The Temple

This temple is facing towards east. Deep Sthambam can be seen in front of the temple. The temple consists of sanctum, ardha mandapam and mukha mandapam. Balipeedam and Garudazhwar shrine can be seen in front of the mukha mandapam. Dvarapalas can be seen guarding the entrance of the ardha mandapam on either side. The sanctum enshrines an image of presiding deity, Aadhi Kesava Perumal in standing posture. He stands here without his consorts Sridevi and Bhoodevi similar to Tirupati Venkatesha Perumal.

He is about six feet tall and is four armed. His upper hands holds conch and chakra. The lower right hand is in the pose of blessing devotees (abhaya hasta) and lower left hand rests on the waist (kati hasta). Paramapada Nathar, Varaha, Narasimha, Krishna, and Aadhi Kesava Perumal are the koshta idols located around the sanctum walls. There is a separate east facing shrine for goddess Maragathavalli Thayar in the prakaram. Her shrine is situated on the right side of the sanctum.

The sanctum enshrines an image of Maragathavalli Thayar in sitting posture. She is four armed. She holds lotus in her upper hands and her lower hands shows abhaya and varada hastha. There is a separate east facing shrine for goddess Andal situated to the left side of the sanctum. There is a separate shrine for Sudarshana / Chakrathazhwar with Narasimha behind him in the temple premises. The Sudarshana has sixteen arms holding various weapons.

The Narasimha behind him is shown seated on the naga with chakras in all four arms. Shrines of Vinayaga, Vedaghosha, Ashtabhuja Vishnu Durga and Azhwars can be seen in the temple premises. The temple has eight wells representing the eight sacred rivers of India namely Ganga, Yamuna, Sarasvati, Sarayu, Godavari, Narmada, Tungabhadra, and Kaveri. There is a separate shrine for Hanuman situated across the road. The Sarayu well is located opposite to Anjaneya shrine. 

Adhi Kesava Perumal Temple, Koovathur – Legends

Adhi Kesava Perumal Temple, Koovathur – Legends

Koovathur:

As per legend, the eight holy rivers of India namely Ganga, Yamuna, Saraswathi, Sarayu, Godavari, Narmada, Tungabhadra, Kaveri felt that they had become dirty due to the bathe of the devotees to get relief from their sins. The rivers wanted to cleanse themselves. They approached Lord Brahma and sought his advice for relief. Lord Brahma advised them to go to earth and meet Sage Vedaghosha for a solution. As advised, the rivers came to earth in search of Sage Vedaghosha. They found Sage Vedaghosha in his ashram in a forest worshipping Lord Adhi Kesava Perumal.

The rivers explained their problems to him and sought him a remedy for their problems. Sage Vedaghosha advised them to stay in their ashram and offer their prayer to Lord Aadhi Kesava Perumal sincerely for relief. As advised, the eight rivers took the form of eight women and prayed to Lord Aadhi Kesava Perumal in the form of service like abhishekam, cleaning the ashram and vessels, decorating the ashram, creating nandavanam, growing fruits and vegetables for the offering  and singing hymns in praise of the Lord Aadhi Kesava Perumal.

Pleased with their prayers and service, Lord Adhi Kesava Perumal appeared before them and promised that their sins accumulated on the day and night due to the bathing of the humans would be removed next day by the time of sunrise. They would be in their purest form again. Before returning to their respective places, they thanked Veda Ghosha and promised that they will stay in this temple in the form of 8 wells and who ever take bath in all the 8 wells and pray Adhi Kesava Perumal will get rid of all their sins. The holy rivers thanked the Lord Adhi Kesava Perumal and Sage Vedaghosha.

In gratitude, the eight rivers promised to stay here in the form of eight wells. Further, they also promised that anyone who bathe in these wells and worship Lord Aadhi Kesava Perumal would be bestowed with the benefits of bathing in these eight rivers. The names of the rivers are written on the wells in the prakara. It is said that these rivers worshipped Lord Aadhi Kesava Perumal here and got his dharshan on a Panguni Uthiram day at sunset. The word Koovam in Tamil means well. As eight holy rivers took the form of wells here, the place came to be called as Koovathur.

Matru Shapam Parihara Sthalam:

As per legend, Lord Rama was afflicted with brahmahatya dosha for killing the Ravana. In order to get rid of the brahmahatya dosha, Lord Rama wanted to perform Shiva Puja and requested Anjaneya to bring a Shiva Linga from Kashi. As Anjaneya was not able to come in time with the Shiva Linga, Mother Sita made a Shiva Linga with the sand and Lord Rama began the poojas to this sand Shiva Linga created by Sita. When Hanuman returned, he saw that the lingam had already been installed and the prayers were complete.

He was upset with Mother Sita as his Shivalinga could not be used for the puja. Seeing his disappointment, Lord Rama asked him to install the Lingam he had brought and worshipped that Lingam as well. Anjaneya realized his mistake and was ashamed of his action. Further, he felt that he had done wrong to mother and began going places to cleanse himself of the sin of being angry with Mother Sita. Finally, he reached this temple in Koovathur, took bath in the eight wells and worshipped Lord Aadhi Kesava Perumal sincerely for relief.

Pleased with his prayers, Lord Aadhi Kesava Perumal appeared before Anjaneya and relieved him from the dosha of being angry with Mother Sita. Further, Anjaneya sought a boon from Lord Aadhi Kesava Perumal that anyone who had not taken care of their mother, or not performed service to them while alive, or their rites after their death, can be relieved of the Matru Shapam by worshipping Lord Adhi Kesava Perumal here.

Yudhistra got relief of his curse here:

As per legend, Yudhistra came to know that Karna was his elder brother after the end of Mahabharata war. He got furious that his mother Kunthi had not revealed tha fact to him and cursed that no woman could withhold any secrets from others. The curse came down upon all women in his empire. Due to this curse, all the houses in the kingdom suffered. The women came together to see Yudhistra and informed him about their troubles.

Further, they cursed Yudhistra for their problems. The curse given the women of his kingdom pushed him in eternal misery. On seeing the condition of  Yudhistra, Lord Krishna took pity on him and advised Yudhistra to worship Aadhi Kesava Perumal at Koovathur. As advised, he came to Koovathur, worshipped Aadhi Kesava Perumal and was relieved from his curse.

Budhan Parihara Sthalam:

As per legend, Budha worshipped Lord Aadhi Kesava Perumal here. Hence, this temple is considered as parihara sthalam for Budha dosha.

People worshipped Lord Aadhi Kesava Perumal here:

It is believed that Hanuman, Sage Vedaghosha, Sage Narada, Budhan Ganga, Yamuna, Saraswathi, Sarayu, Godavari, Narmada, Tungabhadra, Kaveri and Yudhistra had worshipped Lord Aadhi Kesava Perumal here.

Shiva Vishnu Temple, Kondamangalam, Chengalpattu

Shiva Vishnu Temple, Kondamangalam, Chengalpattu

Shiva Vishnu Temple is a group of Hindu Temples dedicated to Lord Shiva and Vishnu located in Kondamangalam Village in Chengalpattu Taluk in Chengalpattu District of Tamil Nadu. The temples are believed to be built in 7^th century CE by Pallavas but the temples have been lost completely. The villagers dug out the idols from the ground and built the temples recently.

The Temples

There are two temples dedicated to Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu located adjacent to each other. Both the temples are facing towards east and consists of sanctum, ardha mandapam and mukha mandapam. The sanctum of the Shiva shrine enshrines the presiding deity, Esana Dharbaranyeswarar in the form of Shiva Lingam. His consort, Pranambigai is housed in a separate south facing shrine.

Her shrine is situated in the mukha mandapa of the Shiva shrine. Nandi and Balipeedam can be found facing towards the Shiva shrine. Chandikeswarar shrine can be seen in his usual location. The sanctum of the Vishnu shrine enshrines an image of Kariya Manicka Perumal with his consorts Sridevi & Bhoodevi. Garuda can be seen facing towards his sanctum. There are two temple ponds associated with these temples.

Contact

Shiva Vishnu Temple,

Kondamangalam,

Chengalpattu Taluk,

Chengalpattu District – 603 209

Mobile: +91 99411 34695 / 95511 43024 / 97102 30154

Connectivity

The temple is located at about 1 Km from Kondamangalam Bus Stop, 7 Kms from Singaperumalkoil, 8 Kms from Singaperumalkoil Bus Stop, 8 Kms from Singaperumalkoil Railway Station, 10 Kms from Nellikkuppam, 14 Kms from Chengalpattu, 23 Kms from Thiruporur, 36 Kms from Chennai Airport and 56 Kms from Chennai. The temple is located at about 7 Kms to the east of Singaperumalkoil on Singaperumalkoil to Thiruporur route via Nellikkuppam. Buses (82, M60) from Singaperumalkoil pass through this village.

Location