In the evening by 5 PM we started from the hotel in Manikandan's autorickshaw to go around Chidambaram.
Our first place of visit was Kaalabairavar temple. There is a separate shrine for Swarna Bhairavar in this Siva temple. The temple is in a village surrounding, small in size but ancient and peaceful. This was some 5-6 kms away from our hotel. Since this was the farthest, he started from here. This temple is not under HNRC we are told and hence being maintained locally. The priest gave us lemon rice prasadam.
The next temple was - Thirunelvayil. Lord Siva here is know as Uchinathar. As the name suggests the entrance of the temple was blocked with rice sacks being weighted and packed. Marriage of Shiva and Parvathi is depicted here. Architecturally there is so much to be appreciated in this temple. Thirugnanasambandar is said to have visited this temple and created verses in praise of Lord Uchinathar. The priest told us about the upcoming pradosam and asked us to contribute, he was not satisfied with the Rs.200 we gave and said its only for our good, another Rs.200 also did not go well with him. Incidents like make you feel low in spite of being in the temple premises. Priests like him need to understand this.
Annamalai University campus was our next place of visit. This campus occupies more than 1500 acres in Chidambaram. Built by the Philanthropist Annamalai Chettiar, this university has a department for all curriculum starting from medicine, dental, engineering, music, marine and agriculture to name a distinct few. We could drive through the university campus and see the different department buildings, hostels and shops. This university is now moved under the government as the decedents of Annamalai Chettiar were unable to run such a vast university any more.
Lord Pasupatheeswarar temple is located inside the Annamalai University campus. Built during the Chola era, the temple has undergone renovations in the last century. The pond belonging to the temple is left un maintained. Lord Pasupatheeswarar pooja is done all three times a day as per the age old rituals. We had a good darshan of Lord Pasupatheeswarar and his consort Goddess Satgunambal.
In the campus Manikandan took us to Lord Ayyappan's temple. In a humble abord we find Lord Ayyappan here. The deity shines in gold and does not let you take your eyes off the Lord. Though the inner sanctum of Lord Ayyappan was in a good state and the deity in full alangaram and diyas amply lite up, the surroundings of the temple are give up to wear and tear.
Our next temple was that of Goddess Gayathri Devi. This is one of the temple in Chidambaram built exclusively for Goddess Gayathri Devi. We had our darshan and same out in few minutes as this is a small temple and built in recent times.
Thillai Kaali temple was the temple we went. It is believed that during the dance competition between Shiva and Parvati the later asked some time to changer customer according to the dance posture and left the dance hall. By which Natarajar was declared the winner of the competition. When she came back, she did not accept the declaration and protested. Hence she was tied and sent out to the outskirts of Chidambaram and that became the Thillai Kaali temple. She is in rage here and hence gets oil everyday. There is also another deity in the same temple call Thillai Amman who is a peaceful state. The Thillai Amman alangaram that day was so good that Amman just stays in your eyes.
The Shiva prayed to by Sage Patanjali is known as Lord Anantheeswarar. The pond in the Anantheeswarar temple is called the Patanjali Theertham. It was quite dark when we entered this temple but we could still see the deep but narrow pond and beautiful corridor around it. Just on the left to the pond is the Lord Selva Vinayakar shrine, the Ganapathi here is large with many devotees sitting down there for the pooja. As we go in we can see the main deity of Lord Anantheeswarar and next him to the right was the shrine of his consort Goddess Soundaranayaki.
We then went to the Nanthanaar temple. Nanthanaar is a saint to whom the Lord Shiva has given darshan by making sure the Nandhi does not block his devotee's view. So Nandanaar is said to have moved the Nandi. Hence Elangovadigal also worships Lord Natarajar when Nandanaar does to get a good darshan of the Lord.
Our final temple today was Elamaiyakkinar temple. An old temple and small in size temple. Lord Elamaiyakkinar here is in the form of Lingam and has his consort Goddess Thirupurasundari's shrine to his right. After a good darshan of both we went around the temple and saw a board saying that this temple belongs to a family. There is a huge pond opposite to this temple. The road between the temple and the pond is used by public. With this we came to the end of today's tour of Chidambaram town and its temples.
We had dinner packed at Ganesh mess - idiyappam and stuffed parotta. Food was good and nominal on price. Manikandan charged us Rs.800 for taking us around the above temples. After this we went in for a long slumber as soon we reached the room and hit the bed.
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