Virudhachalam:
After reading about Siva temples which are considered equivalent to Kasi, I decided to see these temples.I zeroed on Virudhachalam .I googled for temples around Virudhachalam and ended up getting a Potpouuri of Siva temples around Virudachalam.
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| From the inside of the temple. |
It was a pleasant Sunday morning and I left Pondicherry by around 6 am and crossed Cuddalore by 6.45 am. You have to take Chidambaram road and after travelling around 5kms a right cut with a sign board directing to Virudhachalam is well visualised. After a rugged road for 5kms the state highway then transforms into a nice road and a pleasant ride of 55kms will take us to Virudhagireswarar. The temple construction has been in two phases and it is a fascinating story.
Kuberan's daughter while flaunting her array of jewels dropped a erring.The erring was very important for her as she had sentimental attachment to it.The erring was picked by a naughty bird and dropped it on the lap of Vibashista Munivar.The Munivar unaware of the windfall coming his way kept the erring in a safe box.
Kuberan's daughter was peeved at the loss of the erring and she decided to trade her entire jewellery to get back the erring.On hearing this the Munivar gave the erring and got the jewellery from Kuberan's daughter.The Munivar sold the jewellery and with the money he got from the jewels he built the temple.This has happened in 7th century. The outer pragarams was built by Sembian Madevi, a Chozha Princess of 10th century.
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| A serene view of the Gopuram |
The temple is in the banks of river Manimutharu.The river and the temple has an interesting association with the life of Sundarar. Sundarar got 12,000 gold coins from Shiva after singing songs praising Shiva.When sundarar wanted to take these coins to Thiruvarur, Shiva instructed him to drop the coins in the river.The tide took the coins to Thiruvarur which Sundarar collected from a tank called Kamalayam.
This temple is also called as Thirumudukundram or Pazha malai.It just means a grand old mountain.
When Brahma wanted to create hills and mountains in the earth, Pazhamalai was omnipresent covering the entire earth.At Brahma's request Shiva made the mountain submerge under the river with only the top being visible.The hill itself is the manifestation of Sivan.
Legends of this temple does not end here,the Vinayagar here is called as Mattru Uraitha Vinayagar and he got the name because he checked the purity of the gold coins Sundarar got from Shiva.
This temple is supposed to be equivalent to Kasi because people who breathe their last here are blessed with god and goddess chanting the Shivaya Nama in the ears of the deceased.
The temple is quiet,beautiful,well maintained and well attended.
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