My visit to Temples - Part III

Thiruvalanchuzhi



Thiruvalanchuzhi -my earlier and first visit to this temple was with my father in 1989 on a rainy November day. That time when I heard the history of how this temple came about I was quite fascinated by it and my fascination is still the same.
When the Devas and Asuras churned the paarkadal for the celestial nectar, (amirtham), they forgot to pray to Pillayar and that is why alahala visham (poison) came out first. Realising this, Lord Indra, made a Pillayar out of the foam of the ocean (கடல் நுரை) and prayed to this Pillayar. He is said to have taken this Pillayar to different places in different Yugas and brought it to the earth in a chariot. Here the Pillayar sannidhi itself is in the shape of a chariot with the wheels half hidden in the ground. As this Pillayar is made out of kadal nurai, it is white in colour, also called Vellai Vinayakar or Shwetha Vinayakar and abhishekam is not performed on this Pillayar.

Once river cauvery flowed into a dwaram and she was brought out by a Rishi and she takes a circular route around this place from the right side - வலஞ்சுழி . Hence the name Thiruvalanchuzhi.

Pillayar sannidhi is in the front and there is quite a big temple behind. The presiding deity is called Karpaga nadeswarar in Linga form and Goddess is called Periayanayaki
The temple was almost deserted when we reached as it was almost closing time. Ucchikala puja was just completed and we could pray at Karapaga nadeswarar sannidhi, but
Goddess Periayanayaki sannidhi was closed and we could see the Goddess from only from outside.
On the side of the prakaram is Ashtabuja Durgai – looking very regal and beautiful. It is said that before each battle Raja Raja Chola – the greatest king of the Chola dynasty used to come and pray to this Durgai and won all his battles.
The archakas forced us out of the main temple as it was closing time and we came back to Pillayar sannidhi. We spent about 10 minutes admiring the work on the pillars there. There are many pillars all over the temple and the work done on these pillars are so intricate.
This is a very small town and we heard that most of the time this temple has very less crowd.

Though it wasn’t a very hot day, we found it was not easy to walk barefoot in the midday sun. We jogged back to the car wondering if we can cover our next temple –Swamimalai when our driver gave us the good news that Swamimalai temple will not close in the afternoon that day as it was Aadi Friday and Aadi krithigai. So we proceeded to Swamimalai.