I got so tired of working of late, and on one fine sunday, I really wanted a break and I set off with a couple of friends. Didn't much decide on where to go, but just took a couple of books on temples around Chennai and took off in a car. On the way, we decided to go to Thirumazhisai first. Thirumazhisai has 2 temples - Othandiswarar and Jagannathar temples.
Othandeeswarar temple is a Siva Temple. Lord Shiva here is called Othandeeswarar in Sanskrit and Kai Thandha Piran in Tamil. The temple architecture is curved on the back called Gaja Prashta Sivalayam (similar to the back of an elephant, like in Madambakkam or Magaral).
The back wall of the sanctum sactorum has a relief panel of Somaskandha. On the circumambulation passage are the the shrines of Vinayaka, Vishnu, Dharma Nandhi (facing Vishnu), Valli Devasena Subrahmanya, Chandikesar, Brahma, Durga, Rishabha Nayakar, Maha Bhairavar, Surya, Chandra etc.
There sculptures atop the Goshtams. Remember the ones we saw at Madathu Koil??? However here they are too shallow. The pillars were just plain cylinders.
There is something unsual about this temple. Not in the architecture but in historical literature. Thirumazhisai Alwar is an Alwar, meaning he's a Vaishnavite saint, i.e a saint devoted to Lord Vishnu. However before he became a Vaishnavite, he was a Saivaite, meaning a saint devoted to Lord Shiva and has sung hymns on Othandeeswarar here.
Very close to Othandeeswarar temple, is temple of Lord Vishnu called Jegannatha Perumal Temple. As it sounds, the name is similar to Puri Jagannatha.... Its said that the Jaganatha here is called Madhya Jagannatha, one at Puri is Ardha Jagannatha and the one at Thirupullanai is Aadhi Jagannatha.
Lord Jagannatha here looks like Lord Krishna and here with his consorts Rukmini and Sathyabama. The same Thirumazhisai alwar who sung hymns on Othandeeswarar, after converting to Vaishnavism, has sung hymns on Lord Jagannatha also. There is a shrine of Manavala Mamunigal here.
This temple has a separate shrine for the Saint Poet Thirumazhisai Alwar. Here he looks like Chakrathazhwar (like within a wheel). He's in a seated posture with the right leg folded. An unusual aspect is that he has a third eye on the thumb of his right leg. That's the temple's singer playing the drum.
Just opposite the temple was this beautiful house almost in shambles. And that goat too posed with me for this pic!
From there, our next location was, Thirunindravur. Thirunindravur too has 2 temples - one is Lord Shiva and another of Lord Vishnu. Thiru means Mister in Tamil.
Another meaning of Thiru is Sridevi, consort of Lord Vishnu. Thiru + Nindra + Oor means Sridevi + Stood + Place i.e the place where Sridevi stood.
Found this interesting sculpture of a monkey holding a snake on one of the pillars. Reminded me of a poem by Bharathidasan about how a monkey was so scared of a snake that it mistook banyan's ariel roots as snakes and finally its own tail as a snake!!!
Also, here I spotted a particular mandapam that had 6 pillars. Of those 4 were typical Simha Thoon i.e pillars with lions at base. That's a typical Pallava architecture. Remember seeing similar ones at Mahabalipuram?? But the problem is, they look like they've been brought in from various places, coz those 4 pillars are of 3 types...
The Lord Vishnu here is called Baktha Vathsalar. His consort here is called Mathsavithri, Ennai Petra Thayar, and also Nannu Kanna thalli. Shrines of Yoga Narasimhar, Chandikesar, Andal, Adhiseshan are present here.
Again very close to it here is Hrudayaleeswarar. His consort here is Maragadhambal. Hymns were sung here by Sekkizhar & Sundarar. Similar to Thirumazhisai temple, this too is a Gajaprashta Sivalayam in architecture. In the sanctum sanctorum of Lord Shiva, a sculpture of Pusalar Nayanar, a saivaite saint, is also present. Why so much importance for him?
Well, that's how the legend of the temples goes. There was this poor man called Poosalar. He wanted to build a temple for Lord Shiva, but didn't have any finances. So he started building the temple in his heart!!! In the same time, a Pallava king also started building a temple for Lord Shiva. By chance, both of them completed building the temple on the same day and invited Lord Shiva on the same day! Lord Shiva opted to visit Poosalar's temple built with heart instead of the King's temple built with money.... Though dejected, the king was more than curious to know who this guy was and how was the temple. So he visited Thirunindravur and met Poosalar and his impeccable devotion. The king made his dream come true by building an actual temple for Poosalar with his sculpture beside Sivalingam in the sanctum sanctorum... That's why the Lord Siva here is called Hrudyaleeswarar i.e. Hrudaya + Aalaya + Iswarar meaning, Heart + Temple + Lord Siva....
Just outside this temple, I spotted these. Remember I spotted these at Appur?? Here I spotted so so many of those....
From here we were off to our next destination. On the way, there was this police station in front of which was this interesting thing. A tall, very tall (spot the height of street light beside?) pole with a bucket tied atop! I have no clue what its purpose was, but very interesting though.... Lolz!!
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Dedicated to Gopu & Siva
Thanks for your blog. I enjoyed the pictures along with the description. You have added a good number of photos that made reading interesting and presented a feeling of being there.
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