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To know more about the history of this temple you can check this http://oppiliappantemple.org/history.html

 

The next temple was Thirunageshwaram. This is the next navagraha temple which is the Rahu sthalam. We were just entering the temple….there was this woman selling flowers.. I have to mention this as it was very funny. This lady was selling flowers and at the same time asking a kid…must be her grandson …to take bath…now this kid was adamant and was running around. So this lady was scolding him with all the bad words possible and also selling flowers at the same time… so here is how she was calling out “ poovu poovu…mallipoo….kama**ti…vaankanga….poovu…vaangikanga…dari**** pudichavane …vangikayya…poovu…….”

We were unable to get the point of her calling out at first…but then we realized what exactly she was doing….kinda funny…

The Goddess deity in this temple was Ardha Chandra Bimba Gujambikai.

There is also a shrine here for Shani which was where Nala prayed

There was also Girigujambal’s shrine.

It was the Rahu kalam time when we went there. So Rahu was behind curtains. Rahu is one of the navagraha’s who has a serpent form. We waited for the Rahu kala poojai to start. It was good. Crowd was too much ….

This is the only place where Rahu can be found with both his consorts.

P and I went out of the queue. I stood at the back and saw the abhishekam. I saw some blue liquid being poured and was thinking…these days they pour all sorts of things for abhishekam…but when I came out….the driver of our vehicle told us that it was a speciality in the Rahu temple. When milk is poured for abhishekam, sine rahu is a serpent, the milk turns blue and flows down.

Now I am a little doubtful if that’s what I saw….because no one else in our group had noticed it…I would have observed better if I was told about this before going there.

Some details of this temple can be found at http://pulivahanan.wetpaint.com/page/Lord+Raghu?t=anon and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirunageswaram

 

Next was the Suryanar temple in thirumangalakudi which was the next of the navagraha temples. This is the temple where the temple is completely only of the grahas and not of Shiva. Suryan is himself the main deity. Also the importance is that here Surya is facing Guru and also he is with his consorts Chayadevi and Usha.

This temple has separate smaller shrines for the various other grahas also.

Some details about the temple can be found here http://www.indiantemples.com/Tamilnadu/suryanaar.html

 

Next was Kanjanoor in which was the Sukran….next of the navagrahams. The main deity was Shiva as Agniswarar and Karpagambal.

Some details here http://www.indianetzone.com/5/kanjanoor_temple.htm

 

Next navgraha was sevvai at vaideswaran kovil. The navagraham in this temple is Angaraka. Main deity is lord Shiva as usual.The Lord Shiva here is supposed to help in doing away with all illnesses. Hence we are supposed to buy some salt, pepper and jaggerry and put it in a designated place…don’t ask me the significance… I don’t know.The shiva here is vaideswran and Godess is Thaiyalnayaki.

We can also find Dhanavantri and Selvamuthukumaraswamy (murugan) here.

This is supposed to be the place where Jatayu attained Moksham (salvation).

Some more details of this temple can be found at

 

Next in line…Sirgazhi. This temple was a little different. It was almost lunch time when we reached and we were running around to visit all shrines before they closed. The temple has 3 levels with 3 different forms of Shiva. The first level has sokkalingam where shiva is in the lingam form. Next level is dhonipurathu ammai appar…where Shiva is actually in the human form along with his consort Parvathi and they are sailing in a boat….this is a rare depiction of Shiva. The third level was sattainathar which has Shiva in the form of Bhairava in which he is said to be a combination of Shiva and Vishnu.

We first visited Sokkalingam. Then went to the shrine of Goddess Thirmalainayagi. She is supposed to have given Gnyasambadar (a great saint) Gnyanapaal (milk of knowledge).

Nest was dhnoi purathu ammai appar which was in the next level. We ran up the steps and visited the shrine.

Next level was Sattainathar. We could see the God only through a window. Initially they used to allow people into the shrine. But due to increase in crowd and people fighting and pushing and pulling, they stopped allowing people inside.

The story behind sattainathar is as follows; when Vishnu stepped on Bahubali’s head he got an ego that made him feel like he was the greatest. Shiva came down to stop this and hit Vishnu on his chest which made Vishnu fall to the ground unconscious. At this moment MahaLakshmi (vishnu’a voice) pleaded to Shiva to leave Vishnu. Shiva forgave Vishnu. Vishnu was overwhelmed and decided to shed his ego. To represent this he took out the skin from his chest and gave it to Shiva. Shiva wore it as a shirt (Sattai) and hence Shiva and Vishnu became one. This gave the name sattainathar.

Again…the preist was very clear. He said…this act was a thiruvilayadal (divine drama) played by Shiva and Vishnu to illustrate to common man how ego is not good.

But to be honest…I have already heard 3 to 4 versions of this story…so I am really not sure which one is the actual story.

You can find some details on http://uberpedia.org/wiki/Sirkali

 

Next was one of the most awaited place…Chidambaram. It was lunch time by then and we went around hunting for a hotel….finally we had to settle down for a small restaurant that was not very satisfying. Then we went to the Thilai kali temple. Deity’s shrine was closed. So we spent about 2.5 hours trying to sit, walk, sleep in that temple.

 

Finally the temple opened at 4:00PM. We visited the shrine and then left to the famous thilai Natarajar temple. Chidambaram is also known by the name Thilai.

This is one of the rare temples which has both Shiva and Vishnu as main deities. This place is also well known for the Naadi josiyam (palm leaf astrology). Of course many of them are fake these days….

The temple had just opened and we got a great view of the Natarajar. This deity is made of brass unlike the other stone deities. This is also the shrine where we can see the chidambara ragsiyam (secret of Chidambaram)

We had to pay some amount for the ticket. We were allowed to go near the shrine. From there they opened a curtain to show us the secret.

The secret basically depicts nothingness. There are golden leaves of the vilvam tree made and hung. They just depict the formless God and nothingness as the reality of life…

Next we went to the shrine of Maha Vishnu (Govindaraja perumal).

There was a mandapam which had a story as follows; Shiva and Durga had a competition in dance here in front of a huge audience. They had to prove to be equally talented. At one point when the competition was neck to neck. Shiva performed a step where he pulled out his ear-ring using his toe. As Durga being a lady could not do this in front of an audience she had to accept defeat…. I found this a little unfair…anyways…

This mandabam was called natya sabhai..

Since Durga was defeated she agreed to stay in the same town guarding the won and hence she has a temple …Thilai Kali temple that I talked about before the Thilai Natarajar temple.

The thillai temple is supposed to be one of the pancha bootha sthalam….This is the akasha sthalam.

This temple also had shrines for Pundarikkavalli and Sivagami amman.

The ayiram kaal mandapam (the auditorium with 1000 pillars) is also a part of this temple. Shiva is said to perform aananda thaandavam in this temple on some auspicious day and is watched by all the Gods.

There is also a huge nandi outside which is covered.

The complete details can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chidambaram_Temple

 

Next was the Budhan temple. This was the next in the navagraha temple list. Here the main deities were Shwetharanyeshwarar and Bramhavidyambal

Some details here http://www.pariharam.com/Temple_Thiruvenkadu.aspx?TempleID=TMPL004

 

Next in the navagraha list was the Kethu temple at kezhaperumpalam. The main deities here are Naganadhaswamy and Soundaryanayaki

Some details at http://kethutemple.org/history.htm

 

This was the last temple for the day. We rove down to Thirukadayur and stayed there.