Marundeeswarar Temple – Thiruvanmiyur Chennai
Marundeeswarar Temple
Marundeeswarar Temple is a legendary temple located in the breezy area of Thiruvanmiyur, Chennai adjacent to the beach of Bay of Bengal. This is the biggest temple in Thiruvanmiyur. This is a magnificent temple built for Lord Shiva, in his incarnation of Lord Marundeeswarar. Lord Marundeeswarar is said to have the power to heal. This is one of the great Shiva Temples of Tamilnadu.
Marundeeswarar Temple
Name: Marundeeswarar Temple
Primary deity: Marundeeswarar(Shiva)
Architecture: Dravidian architecture
Location: Tiruvanmiyur, Chennai, Tamilnadu, india
Marundeeswarar Temple Rajagopuram
Mythology
Lord Marundeeswarar is known so because he taught sage Agastya about some magical medicine. Since then The Marundeeswarar temple has been a place of worship for people with diseases and various problems with their health. It is said that even The Sage Valmiki, who wrote The Ramayana, came here to The Marundeeswarar temple to worship The Lord. Sage Valmiki was said to be blessed here. After this incident, this place was to be known as Thiruvalmikiyur, after a long period of time, the name gradually changed to Thiruvanmiyur. There is a place present in Thiruvanmiyur called Valmiki Nagar in his honour. There is also a temple built for Sage Valmiki in the middle of the East Coast Road. The temple is built very close to the Marundeeswarar temple. It came as a surprise that the builders of the ECR (East Coast Road) had even considered demolition of the temple of Sage Valmiki in order to complete the project (of building the ECR). The high court of Tamil Nadu then directed that the temple be in its place and not to disturb it.
Marundeeswarar Temple Tank
The lingam for which Lord Hanuman performed pooja, The lingam(meenakshisundareswarar) that cured the curse of Lord Indra, the Lingam for which Saint Bharadwaja performed pooja are present here. Markandeyar performed a penance and prayed to lord Shiva here, Lord Brahma is believed to have conducted a festival here for lord Shiva.
Even lot of people from far away places like Orissa frequently come to this place.
The Temple
Located in the southern part of chennai city this famous temple is a Paadal Petra Sthalam with Thirugnanasambandhar and Thirunavukkarasar having delivered Paasurams here.
The Architecture
The temple has two entrances, one from East Coast Road and the other from West Tank Street. The Entrance from the West Tank Street has got three gates whereas the entrance from the East Coast Road has only one gate.
Marundeeswarar Temple
The Shrines
The temple has smaller Shrines for Lord Ganesha, Lord Murugan, Lord Shiva, which has the idols of Lord Shiva in his three forms, Lord Theyagaraja, Lord Marundeeswarar, and Lord Nataraja. Lord Nataraja is supposed to be Lord Shiva in his dancing form. Lord Theyagaraja and Lord Nataraja are the only forms of Lord Shiva in which he is not in the Lingam form. The last shrine is for Lord Marundeeswarar’s consort, Goddess Thirupurasundari, who is actually Godddess Parvati.( The order of shrines given is the order which is supposed to be followed while worshipping the idols). The sculpture of the temple is accurate, and has a lot of detail in it.
The Deities
The Primary deity, The Marundeeswarar Lingam is said to be formed naturally and has not been sculpted by anyone. This formation is known as Idumbu in Tamil. In the Mahamandapam where The deity resides, there are 108 lingams, and the replicas of the five lingams of the five elements. The divine cow Kamadhenu is believed to be delivering milk to the lingam daily and the lingam is hence white. For this reason, the lingam here is also called ‘Paalvannanathar’ (in Tamil, ‘Paal’ means milk, ‘Vanna’ means colour). And hence, Paalvannanathar means ‘one whose colour is that of milk’. Other names of the Lord here are Oushadheeswarar, Marundheesar, Vedapureeswarar. The Goddess is also known as Thirupurasundari, Chokkanayagi and Sundaranayagi.
Holy Tree of the Shrine – Vanni
Theertham
Jenmanasini, Kamanasini, Pavanasini, Gnanadhayini, Motchadhayini are the five therthams here.
