TOUR DIARY  --   notes jotted down in haste  by J.K. Sivan

Saturday, the  20^th of  September 2008, was ideally suitable for the 11 of us to undertake a pilgrimage to  the navagraha kshetrams in and around Chennai.  In fact, in the Thondaimandalam region,  (Thiruvallur, kanchipuram districts) there are age old navagraha kshetrams, which were prominent during the  Pallava/Chola regimes, frequented for worship by our ancestors.

At 0600hrs we commenced the pilgrimage, proceeding first to Pozhichalur, off Pammal,  a serene quasi township,  where the presiding deity, Agastheswarar, is the Mangala Saneeswarar of Vada Thirunallaru.  This ancient temple is with no rajagopuram and looks queer, with the statues of gods/goddesses lying in the open in proper form, or mutilated. Time has eroded this temple with no regular maintenance,  and we helplessly look at the edicts on stone walls evidencing the ravage and passage of time.

Thoyadri,  well known in Tamil as Thiruneer malai, has Neervanna Perumal in the three states of Nindran, Irundhan and Kidandhan with the rare Santha Narasimhar in the inner corridor,  The serenity of the temple atop a hillock, brings immence peace to the mind.  

Sekkizhar built the Nageswaran temple, which has been ever since worshipped as Rahu sthalam, and this ancient temple  along with the Uraga perumal Koil and the Murugan temple on a small hillock,  are drawing devotees from all over, at Kunrathur.  There is a temple for Sekkizhar also here.  All these temples date back to Kulothunga Chola’s  period.

Unmindful of the rugged roads, if you proceed  10km south of Kunrathur, an excellent but uncared for, ancient temple awaits you at Somangalam.  This temple has a special sannidhi for Chandran as the name Soma denotes,  Here Nandhi in front of Somanatheswarar is facing the opposite direction as He was protected by the Nandhikeswara, who warded off evil forces from nearing the precincts. This temple was also built by  Kulothunga Chola and has inscriptions and is a model of the Gajabrishta (Thoonganai) style of construction of temples during the early Chola period. Don’t miss to see the Chathura thandava  Natarajar here which is a rare piece of art. One feels sad to witness many idols kept in a corner without shelter from sun and showers.  Probably poor road conditions do not draw much devotees to this rare temple.

Saint Ramanuja’s birth place at Sri perumbudur is now a  mandapam not open to visitors who can worship from across the locked gate. Adhikesava perumal’s  temple adjacent to this mandapam, has a Sannidhi for Ramanuja,  which is Thamugandha thirumeni. Lord Adhikesava is blessing devotees in His  veetrirundha thirukolam.  The temple elephant is an added attraction here.

We moved on to Thiruvallur and witnessed the progress of construction of the sanctum sanctorum for the 32’ (the tallest) Panchamuga Anjaneyar.   This temple is within a short distance of the famous Vaidya Veeraraghava Perumal temple, the presiding deity of Thiru Evvalur (now known as Thiruvallur).  The temple opens at 4 pm in the afternoon and we had an excellent darshan of the Lord and Kanakavalli Thayar, on this  Purattasi Saturday immediately after the temple doors were opened enjoying a  brief spell of the welcome showers while waiting for the darshan.

Amidst the busy, hectic and the mad rush and noice of the  high way at Poonamallee one can still stay calm and peaceful if he cares to visit the huge Vaidhyanathaswamy temple here.  Known as Vada Vaidheeswaran Koil,  this  Angaraka (sevvai) kshetram is easily accessible and belongs to the Chola period.

Much to our regret we could not cross the road and visit the Varadarajar temple on the way as it was getting late and we were short of time.  Here is the sannidhi for Thiru Kachi nambigal, who was visited by Lord Varadaraja of Kanchi, to receive personally the garland made by the Thirukachi nambigal because Nambigal was too old to resume his regular walk with the garland made by him for the Lord at Kanchi. This great pilgrim centre should not be missed.

Equally for similar reasons  we missed the Annadhana Shirdi Sai Baba’s  temple on the way as we proceeded fast to Mangadu.

Closer to the famous  Mangadu Kamakshi temple, lies the temple of Lord Velleeswarar (Sukra sthalam).  Brigu Munivar regained his vision here and the imposing  Lord Ganesha welcoming everyone to the sanctum santorum,  is seen with a mango both in his trunk and left hand. Mangadu obtained its name because of the mango groves here  and the Mangani Vinayakar reminds us of this. Don’t fail  to note that there is no sannidhi for goddess here as Kamakshi was penancing closeby at Mangadu to be wedded to the Lord.

Kovur is just 4 km from Kunrathur as was well known to us but unknown to the driver of our vehicle  who took us through many lanes and village streets not only suffering himself but rendering us victims of his folly.  Our trivials and turbulence on the roads vanished abruptly when we stood in front of Lord Sundareswarar temple at Kovur. The goddess here is Sivakamasundari who is a Rudhra roopini as well, and the devotees can only hear of the skulls, weapons etc., which she adorns in her waist and can be only seen and reported by the Sivacharyas who dress the idol.  Saint Thyagaraja had contributed Kovur Pancharathna keerthanas during his visit many centuries ago. Imagine the road conditions then with no electricity,  though we experienced and re- lived similar conditions thanks to our driver and the power cut!!!! The  mada gopuram is peculiar here as each mada one above the other, is similar to our balconies in the flats.

The clock struck almost  9.00 pm, when we ended the one day tour with a visit to the Ramanadheswarar temple at Porur.

Here the Lord is both Hari and Hara and only in this Siva temple the devotees are blessed with Sadari and theertham as in Vaishnava temples and the presiding deity is Rama’s Guru ( hence this, a Guru sthalam) when Lord Rama prior to his battle with Ravana, meditated for 48 days under the amla tree ( Nelli maram, which is the sthala vriksha here). It is also how this place got its name as Por Ur  (village of the battle),  The idol is a sarvalankara murthi.

What we missed  during this tour planned by us was the visit to Kolappakam (Surya sthalam), Gerugambakkam ( Kethu sthalam)  which we hope to cover in future, the reason for our missing these temples being the oru kala pooja in these temples, ie., the temples doors are closed latest by 7 pm!!!