Katumannar Koil Siva Sthalangal

I have just started blogging and I'm doing this to assist people who would like to visit various historical temples present in Tamilnadu and other states.
I'm planning to travel to 108 Divya Desams and 275 Shiva sthalangal. For a true devotee, Lord Shiva and Vishnu are the same. Belief in God is important and His various manifestations are Shiva,Vishnu,Brahma,Ganesha,Jesus etc…
Divya desams and Devara sthalangal are the places of importance because Azhwars and Nayanmanrs have come to these places and sung songs praising the Almighty.
In my first virgin blog I will cover 4 important Shiva sthalams near Kattumannar koil.
Kindly tolerate my mistakes.


THIRUNAARAIYUR:


There are 4 Shiva sthlangals around Kattumannar koil. Im a Pondicherian and hence to cover these 4 places I started my travel at 5.30 Am itself. Today on Tamil new year day riding my ever reliable spark I reached Chidambaram by 7AM itself. One has to enter the town of Chidambaram, take a right turn at the bus stand and then reach a three way road. The left cut will take you to Seerkazhi ; the right cut to Cuddalore and a straight road to Kattumanarkoil. It is a state highway and the road is reasonable .The important thing to remember is don’t take the bye pass when you come from pondicherry, you have to go inside the town. After 15 kms you will cross a small hamlet by name Kumaratchi and after you travel another 2-3 Kms you will find a left cut where there is also a board indicating the direction to Thiunaaraiyur as well as Polla pillaiyar koil. Both are one and the same.
Two Kms of bumpy road will take you to this small village called Thiunaaraiyur and a right turn will take you to the temple. Temple is reasonably maintained and is of big size.
This place is very sacred because this is the place where Nambiandar nambi was born and brought up.　The legend of this temple is interesting and sentimental.
When Nambi’s father had to go out for some work he entrusted his child to do pooja for Lord Vinayaga. The child offered food to God and was waiting for God to eat. When God did not eat the child felt that his love is not pristine and banged his head over the feet of the idol. The God came and then ate the food and also taught the child the lessons he had missed in the school. The king Rajaraja Cholan heard about this and visited the temple. During that time also Lord Ganesha came and ate food at the child's request. The king then asked the blessed child to get information from Lord Ganesha where the devara hymns are present. Lord Ganesha directed the child to go to Thillai and get the palm leaves from behind the statue where it laid buried. Only ten percent of palm leaves were readable and this was compiled by Nambi the blessed child.
Lord Ganesha found in this temple is called polla pillaiyar and in fact polla means self manifesting and not mischievous.　Lord Shiva here goes by the name of Soundareswarar. There is another Thiruanaraiyur in karaikal to kumbakonam road, also called as nachiar koil. This is a Divya desam.


KAANATAMPULIYUR:


My next stop was Kaanatampuliyur which is 5-6 kms from Kattumanarkoil. One has to take a left and reach a place called Muttam village and from there after a two km stretch one can reach Kaanatam puliur. This temple is being renovated. The God here is called Pathanchali nathar.　Nobody knows exactly about the details of Pathanjali, all that can be said is he was a sidhar who did a lot on yogic tantras and had a body out of which half was human and another half was seprent. Lord Shiva had given grace to Pathanjali sithar here and he also showed himself to Sambandhar when he was stuck at Kolllidam and was not able to come to the shrine because of thorns and lingams in the ground. Kannatammullur has gradually changed to kannatampuliur. In case Shivachariar is not available an administrator by name Jayachandran is available nearby the temple to open and show the temple.
His contact number is 9790333377.


OMAMPULIYUR:


You have to drive back to the main road and then turn left to reach Omampuliur another great temple. After you travel a straight road for 3 kms , a small right cut will take you to the temple entrance. The temple has been renovated and appears well maintained. The main deity here is called Pranavaviyagarabureeswarar.
The importance of this temple is:
One can take pariharam for Lord Guru and people born with Revathi　Natchatram.
It is one of the five puliyur temples.　There are totally 5 namely Chidambaram,　Perumpuliyur,　Omamapuliyur,　Thirupathipuliur　and Thiruerukampuliur.
Puliyur means Vyagapradar has worshipped in these 5 places.　He is a saint with feet and hands made of tiger's claws.　The mythology of this temple is Shiva Dakshinamurthy is said to have revealed the Pranva Upadesam to Parvati, and hence the name Pranavavyagrapuram. The name Omaampuliyur is said to have been derived from this legend -Om Aam Puliyur.
In Omampuliyur temple, we find shrines for the three Goddesses, Goddess Parvathi, Lakshmi and Saraswathi a rarity. Also here archana is offered to dakshinamurthy.　The sight of dhashinamurthy will leave one, spell bound.


MELKADAMBUR:


After you travel for another 5 kms from Omamapuliyur one will reach Kadambur. There are 2 Kadambur's mel and kizh.The Shiva temple is at Mel kadambur. The diety here is called Amirthakadeswahrar.
This temple is unique in many ways. Shivachariar here is young and a nice man. He was at his home when I reached the place at 11 AM. I went to his home and he immediately came with me to open the temple. He was very ethical and refused to open the main deity’s entrance though I was able to see the God from few feet distance.　He also became the guide and explained about the temple under the hot sun.
This temple is a Karrakovil meaning that the moolvar is present in a chariot like structure.　Another saying is Karam means kadambu and kadambu is the tree and stala virutcham of the temple.
The chariot was built in 1113 AD by Kulothungo Cholan.Every aeon (ugam) some people with greatness come and worship this temple.　At kaliyugam Pathanjali munivar has come and worshipped here.　The chariot like feature is a visual treat and in the chariot 63 nayanmar’s history has been sculpted. Dakshinamurthy is seen in three forms.　With veena,　with book and yoga stance.　Perumal is at the back side and one can see Lord Surya worshiping Lord Shiva also. Apart from this Ramayana story is also sculpted here.


BREAKING LINGAMS AND AMIRTHAKADESWARAR:


The mythology of this temple takes two interesting stories. Indran's mother was doing penance to Lord Shiva at her old age.  Lord Indran came down to earth to take his mother in the chariot with the Shivalingam which she worshipped. As he did not worship Lord Ganesha before starting, Lord Ganesha did not allow the chariot to fly to Indran's place. Lord Indra pleaded sorry and Lord Ganesha asked him to make one crore lingams. As he was doing these lingams it was breaking. A voice told him to go to Kadambur and make these lingams. He does the same and now the lingams did not break.
Another story is Devas take amirtham as their food. When they were about to take the amirtham one day without worshippping Lord Ganesha , he became angry and took the amirtham and started walking .A drop of amirtham fell down on the earth and this drop manifested as Suyambu lingam and hence the name Amirthakadeshwarar. During the 3rd, 4th, 5th day of the Tamil month of Panguni, twelfth month of Tamil Calendar, early during sunrise at 6.15 am, the Sun's rays will fall on Lord Amirthakateshwara Lingam for about fifteen minutes. This is another uniqueness of this temple.
Another special feature of this temple is the Pala dynasty idol Dasha Buja Rishaba Thandavamurthy idol here which was taken by the Rajendra chola after his victory over the Burma king. In this idol one can see Lord Shiva dancing over the bull with ten hands and weapons. Devas worship him as He is dancing. One can see this idol only on important days, otherwise its locked up somewhere.
Kalki's book Ponniyun selvan and Vikraman's book Nandipuranayagi talks about this place and temple.
After seeing these 4 temples I developed great interest and respect towards cholas who had ruled us from 850 to 1350 AD .They had built these temples or renovated them. Temples make people God fearing and also inculcates honesty, integrity and sincerity.


THIRUNAARYAIUR TEMPLE:

Omampuliur temple:

 Kannatam puliyur temple:

 Amirthakadeswarar
Temple:

Chariot -Kaarakoil: