Temple Trails Tamil Nadu : Hridyaaleeswarar Temple

Tirunindravur Hridyaaleeswarar Temple

The next temple we visited was Hridyaaleeswarar Temple. Both the Bhaktavatsala Perumal Temple and Hridyaaleeswarar Temple are about 1500 years old. In those days the kings built temples for both Sivan and Vishnu nearby.

The legend of Hridyaaleeswarar temple is that Poosalar Nayanar, one of the 63 Nayanars wished to build a temple for Lord Shiva. As he did not have funds to build a temple, he built a temple in his heart for Lord Shiva. It was not a rough structure, but a detailed one, covering all aspects of a Sivan temple. He also fixed a date for the kumbabishekam of the temple. Pallava king Rajasimha had built a temple for Lord Shiva in Kanchipuram during this time and he fixed a date for kumbabishekam which happened to be the same day as the Poosalar’s heart temple’s kumbabishekam day. On the earlier night, Lord Shiva came in the king’s dream to tell him that he cannot come for his temple kumbabishekam as he has to be present for Poosalar’s temple kumbabishekam. The king went in search of Poosalar and was shocked to find that Poosalar had built a temple in his heart for the Lord. He got a detailed description of the heart temple from Poosalar and built a temple accordingly. This temple is the Hridyaaleeswarar temple – Hridya meaning heart. To this day people pray here for cure for their heart ailments. This is again a huge temple.

As soon as we entered we prayed to Lakshmi Ganapathy and then proceeded to Lord Shiva’s sannidhi. This temple was fairly crowded, but most of the crowd seemed to be part of a group that had come for some film shooting. The imposing dwajasthambam was there with Nandi in front of it facing the Lord.

Sivan sannidhi was more like a hall with a couple steps leading to the Lord’s sannidhi and with Ambal on our right side. We first went to the Lord’s sannidhi and prayed there. Lingam is a fair size, neither too big, nor too small. Poosalar Nayanar was sitting in front of his Lord in the form of a statue. We prayed to the Hridyaaleeswarar to take care of any heart ailments and then got down to go to Ambal Sannidhi. Ambal alangaram was minimal but she was looking very beautiful in a nine yards sari. The name of the Goddess is Maragathaambigai.

Towards right side of the Siva Linga is the Navagraha sannidhi. We did a few pradakishnams around the nine planets. Just in front of the Navagraha, we could see a statue of Rajasimha, the Pallava king who built this temple for Poosalar. The ceiling of the inner prakaram was a visual treat with very beautiful paintings.

Directly behind Hridayaaleeswarar sannidhi on the left side was Ganapathi and on the right side was Murugan with Valli Deivanai. We also saw the idols of 63 Nayanmars and of course Natarajar and Sivagami Ammai. As we completed the pradakshinam, Bhairavar was on the left corner and on two sides of the entrance door were Chandran and Suryan. We came out to do a pradakshinam of the outer prakaram which was an open space. As we completed the pradakshinam we understood that the inner prakaram - the hall were all the above sannidhis were was in the form of Gajaprishtam – back of an elephant in sitting posture. Satisfied with the darshan we had, we proceeded to have a breakfast break at our friend Bhavani’s place.

Temple Trails Tamil Nadu : Bhaktavatsala Perumal

Tirunindravur Bhaktavatsala Perumal

This blog is on the first temple we visited during our short pilgrimage.

Our first visit was to Tirunindravur Bhaktavatsala Perumal temple. After leaving home by 620 am we reached the temple in 40 minutes time. The whole town of Tirunindravur was a bit sleepy and though the main temple was already open, the sannidhis were just being opened then. The gopuram is an imposing structure with a mandapam in front of it where a few ladies were selling flowers and thulasi.

One of the Bhattars suggested that we go to the Thaayar sannidhi first as it is good to pray there first in Thiru Nindra Voor and then at Perumal sannidhi. We were made to walk up and down the sannidhis for a few minutes after which we divided ourselves into two groups and one was at Perumal sannidhi and the other at Thaayar sannidhi. I happened to be in the second group at Thaayar sannidhi. The Bhattar was kind enough to give us some details about the temple. Mahalakshmi was doing penance in this place. Samudraraja and Varuna searched her all over the world and found her here. Very happy to finally find her, they called her “Ennai Petra Thaayar” (Mother) and hence the name of the Goddess is Ennai Petra Thaayar. She is also known as Sri Sudha Valli. Thaayar was looking beautiful.

There was an oonjal hanging in front of the sannidhi which must have been used for the Aadi Pooram festival that had taken place a few days earlier. We then proceeded to Perumal sannidhi. Perumal is such a huge deity about 10 feet tall with Sreedevi and Bhoodevi on either side. The Urchavar is called Patradhi Perumal. Bhaktavatsala Perumal looked so majestic with the fresh alangaram and we had a good darshan.

Behind Perumal’s sannidhi, there is Chakrathaazhvar and Aadhiseshan sannidhi on either side. On the other side of Perumal’s sannidhi is Andal sannidhi. Unfortunately, it was closed as the Bhattars had not yet completed their poojas to Perumal and Thaayar.

As we completed the pradakshinam, we could see Yoga Narasimhar on the left side.

During our pradakshinam, a lady lighting lamp at the temple told us not to miss the pinnazhagu of Thaayar – behind Thaayar’s sannidhi, exactly behind the deity; there was a marking on the stone wall depicting the structure of the Goddess right from the crown to her folded legs. It was very nice of that lady to show us this as we would not have noticed this without her information.

We did our namaskarams in front of the huge dwajasthambam and proceeded to the Anjaneyar sannidhi on the road opposite the temple.

Here again the sannidhi was closed, but we could see the Anjaneyar through the grill doors in his usual handfolded posture facing the Perumal.

We prayed to the Anjaneyar and left for the Sivan temple in Tirunindravur.

Eventful Saturday - A short pilgrimage

Short Pilgrimage

On 14 August, we had a short pilgrimage - half a day trip to temples in Thiruvallur and Tirunindravur from our colony. It was a very nice trip with a small group of people who were very cooperative and cheerful all through the trip which is most important for such group trips.

We covered six temples in total, two in Thiruninravur, one in Putlur, one in Kaklur and two in Thiruvallur. Details of the temples in the coming blogs!

We started at 6.20 am in the morning and were back home by 2.00 pm for lunch.  Our friend Bhavani was so nice to accomodate all of us in her house in Thirunindravur and let us have our breakfast and coffee there which we had prepared from home and carried with us in the van.

The weather was fairly pleasant which was an added advantage. All in all it was a great trip as everyone enjoyed it.
Hope to have more such trips in future!