Chennai temples I

Almost two months since the last temple visit, Suja and I felt that the gap was too long. On top of this Rama’s father had suggested that Suja/Jagan visit Bharadwajeeswarar temple in Puliyur (Kodambakkam, Chennai) which they did promptly. Suja was all praises for the temple comparing it with Devalokam which tempted me to visit this temple. A comment from Jagan that we have so many ancient temples in Chennai to see, made me think that we should cover as many temples as possible area wise. It so happened that last Saturday Suja asked if we can visit Bharadwajeeswarar temple and the idea of covering temples area wise took shape. We decided to start from Egmore, then Nungambakkam and then Kodambakkam High road and so on. As none of the other friends were free, and our spouses busy,  it was just me and Suja! 

Suja, a ready handbook of ancient temples of Tamil Nadu, suggested we visit Arthanaareeswarar temple in Egmore. Sundar Pichai (as I dearly refer to google map) showed me that there is a Srinivasa Perumal temple nearby. My sister Jayashree, another knowledge source of old temples, as usual said she had already visited the Arthanareeswarar temple much earlier and gave me further directions. Being a Saturday, maybe Perumal wanted to give us darshan first, our search for the Sivan temple lead us to Srinivasa Perumal!

Srinivasa Perumal Temple, Egmore

We entered the temple to have darshan of Padmavathy Thayar first! Thumbikkai Azhwar was present in the front and praying to him, we entered Thayar sannidhi. Clad in a fluorescent green pattu sari, Thayar looked so beautiful! Taking her blessing, we circumambulated her sannidhi to reach the main deity Srinivasa Perumal. We prayed at Sri Andal sannidhi and Sri Rama, Seetha Lakshmanan Sannidhi in between.

The first thing I noticed in the Perumal sannidhi was that it was so brightly lit unlike the usual slightly dark sanctums of old temples. The Lord was standing majestically and the most striking feature was his eyes, blessing you benevolently! The Bhattacharyar explained that Egmore is actually Yezhumoor, named after saptarishis! The temple is very ancient but the present construction is about 600-700 years old. He further said that many of the old Vishnu temples will have two presiding deities and he invited us further inside to see another Lord in sitting posture just in front of the main deity. The uniqueness of this temple is that usually, we have darshan of the Lord first in Perumal temples and then the Thayar, whereas in this temple, we pray to Thayar first as soon as we enter and only then the Lord! He further detailed about the various utsavams which take place all through the year. We came out to pray at Sri Rama Bhakta Anjaneyar sannidhi.

A beautiful sculpture depicting the churning of Paarkadal on the gopuram

Satisfied with the first visit, we asked an auto fellow to take us the Ardhanareeswarar temple.

Ardhanareeswarar Temple, Egmore

The entry to the temple was a tiny lane and looking at my face, Suja asked me if I was disappointed by the size of the temple. That I was, no doubt, but all that was more than compensated by the Lord’s darshan.

We could see the Lord right from the end of the lane but climbing the 4-5 steps and looking at the Lingam close by, we were in awe! A very huge Aavudaiyar and such a big Lingam on top! Two eyes aren’t enough to see the Ardhanareeswarar behind the Lingam! Flanked by Lord Ganesha on our left and Lord Muruga on our right as usual, the universal Mother and Father are standing as one, waiting to bless us! Goddess of the temple is Sri Tirupurasundari in standing posture. I was not surprised to hear the Gurukkal saying that the temple must have been a huge one earlier. The Lingam and other idols were unearthed a century back, having been buried for a long time.

On the left of the main sannidhi was a cute looking mandapam and adjacent to the main sannidhi was Lakshmi Narayana Perumal. Covered in Gold kavasam, the Lord was holding Mahalakshmi on his lap. We went around to have darshan of Kala Bhairavar.

We planned to visit the Agastheeswarar temple in Nungambakkam next, but again as per Lord’s wishes, the auto had to cross Nungambakkam Prasanna Venkatesa Perumal temple and we stopped there!

Varasiddhi Vinayakar Temple, Nungambakkam

How can I not visit the Nungambakkam Varasiddhi Vinayakar Koil? Growing up visiting this temple maximum number of times in my school days, every step into the temple was nostalgia. I bored Suja with reminiscences in each and every sannidhi! The varasiddhi vinayakar was cute as usual, blessing all and my favourite Murugan stood there with Valli and Deivanai. I could not stop thinking about the silver Vel and Sevalkodi given by Paati in this sannidhi.

The navagraha sannidhi, though looking a little different now with many railings, reminded me of the days of hurried pradakshinams before exams and ellu mudichu vilaku during my first 7 ½ Saturn period as per Amma’s advice

The Ramar deity in front of the Navagrahas is fairly new. We prayed there and at Dakshinamurthy sannidhi. Circumambulating further, we prayed at Sri Siddhaswarar and Siddheswari sannidhi and continued to pray at my another favourite, Goddess Durgai! Suja was surprised to see a separate sannidhi for Lord Saneeswara! The same old Gurukkal was present in this sannidhi and gave me a hesitant smile as I did look familiar to him, but he could not place me. He asked a general question as to where I stay now and left it at that J We then proceeded to Sri Prasanna Venkatesa Perumal temple with a short visit to the Bhajana Mandal on the way. The huge perumal much visible from the road had never failed to fascinate me! Suja offered Thulasi mala here.

Prasanna Venkatesa Perumal Temple, Nungambakkam

Work is going on at Sri Prasanna Venkatesa perumal temple and hence the entrance was literally through someone’s house. Entering into this temple was another nostalgic trip and I started boring Suja with my remembrances of various incidents, weddings, temple utsavams etc!  Not to forget the innumerable upanyasams by Mannargudi Rajagopala Sastrigal, Navalpakkam Varadacharyar, my own Raja Thatha, and his brother Panchapakesan (Chellappa thatha). We visited the Perumal sannidhi first and then Thayar. I was surprised to see so many new sannidhis like Lakshmi Narasimhar, Sri Andal. But due to space constraint, all these are constructed at the place where upanyasams used to take place earlier. Need to visit the temple once again after the work is completed and everything is in order to see how it looks! After namaskaram at Dwajasthambam, we prayed at Hanumar sannidhi and came out.

Sri Agastheeswarar Temple, Nungambakkam

It was already 730 pm and with calls from home, we decided we will stop with the visit of Sri Agastheeswarar temple. Taking an auto across the road to save time, we reached the temple in a few minutes. I had the opportunity of visiting this temple a few years back with my sisters and friend Suganthi and the photographs here were taken during that earlier visit.

I realised during this trip that this temple is as ancient and important as any other ancient temple we visit down south, but we just used to take this for granted as it was so close by.

The temple as such is about 1500-2000 years old and according to the legend I heard, Lord Sukra is said to have obtained his eyesight after praying to the Lord here. Hence praying at this temple is good for people with ailment in the eyes. Lord Agastheeswarar is in Linga rupam. Goddess Akilandeswari stands in a separate sannidhi perpendicular to the Lord. After pradakshinam around the main sanctum where we could see sannidhis of Nalvar, and Lord Muruga with his consorts, we went around the outer prakaram to have darshan of Ramalinga Adigalar, the 400 year old vanni maram, a newly constructed Siva lingam with Nandi sitting in front inside a mandapam, another sannidhi for Lord Muruga with Shanmugastavam imprinted on the opposite wall, Kala Bhairavar and Navagraha. After namaskaram near kodi maram, we sat for a few minutes looking at the huge temple tank before leaving. As it was quite late, we decided to call it a day and postpone our visit to temples on Arcot road starting with Bharadwajeeswarar to another day!