Veerateeswarar Temple, Thiruvathigai - Panruti

History

The Pallava king Mahendravarman I built a temple called Gunavareswaram close to the temple. Mahendra Pallava is believed to have attained the name Gunavareswara on account of the incident. A king called Kalinkaraya is believed to have endowed lot of treasures and built various structures in the temple as seen from the inscriptions in the temple. King Raja Raja Chola I is believed to have stayed in this temple for a long time to study the architecture before building Brihadeeswarar Temple. The temple is believed to have been expanded by later Pandyas. During the period of Marthas and British Colonization, the temple acted as a fort to the armies. The inscriptions indicate that the streets have to be cleaned before any temple procession with the likes of the streets in this village.

Archietecture

The temple covers an area of 7 acres with three precincts. The seven tiered Vimana or gateway tower has sculptures depicting 108 poses of Bharatanatyam. There is a sixteen pillared hall called Thiruneetru mandapam. There is a temple tank named Chakrateertha kulam and a Vasantha mandapam on the northern portion of the tank. On the second precinct, there is a flag staff and a five tiered temple tower. The sanctum is built on an elevated structure. There are shrines around the sanctum in the first precinct that has a shrine of Thilagavathiar, a pillared hall housing the sixty three nayanmar, Saniswarar, Durga, Siddivinayagar, Muruga, a set of Lingam, Nataraja and Surya. The shrine of Umayammai, the consort of the presiding deity, is present. The shrine houses the image of Lingam which is believed to have worshiped by Vishnu. There is a south facing shrine in the hall before the sanctum where the image of Tripurasamharamurthy with sixteen hands is housed. Sanctum houses the image of Veerataneswarar in the form of lingam. There is an image of Ammayapar housed in the sanctum. The shrine over the sanctum has a pyramidal roof with stucco images all through the filial at the top.

Location:

Veerateeswarar Temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva and it is located in Thiruvathigai village which is about 2 kilometres east from the town of Panruti in the Tamil Nadu state. Lord Shiva is worshiped as Veerattaaneswarar, and is represented by the lingam. His consort Parvati is depicted as Thiripurasundari. The presiding deity is revered in the 7th century Tamil Saiva canonical work, the Tevaram, written by Tamil saint poets known as the nayanars and classified as Paadal Petra Sthalam.

Temple Timing:

Temple is open from 5.30 am to 12.00 am and from 4.30pm to 8.00pm

                                                        

Sri Abirameswarar Temple at Thiruvamathur - Vilupuram Distirct

History of the Temple

Thiruvamathur is located on the banks of the Pampa river, a tributary of the Pennai river. The historical names of this place are – Gomathrupuram, Gomatheeswaram and Gomathupuram. 

This temple was originally built by the Pallava rulers. Later on, the Cholas made several endowments. This is evident from the stone inscriptions available here. At a later date, Achutha Deva Pallavar is believed to have renovated this temple. There is an idol of Achutha Deva Pallavar here.

In this temple, there are stone inscriptions that document the histories of 26 kings from 955 to 1584 AD. The important kings among them are Rajaraja Cholan-I, Rajendra Cholan-I, Rajathi Rajan-I, Kulothungan-I, Vikramathithan, Sadaya Verman, Vikrama Pandian and Krishnadeva Rayar.

The stone inscriptions also reveal that a Chola king sanctioned a grant that helped several blind students learn the devaram hymns and sing them in the temples.

Year of Old : 1000-2000 year of old temple 

General Information

• This is one of the 276 Devara Paadal Petra Shiva Sthalams and 21^st Shiva Sthalam in Nadu Naadu.
• Lord Shiva in this temple is a Swayambumurthi (self-manifested).
• Lord Shiva’s idol has the impression of a hoof at the top. There are multiple rivulet markings which signify that this lord was worshiped with milk that flowed from udders of cows.
• Inscribed on the chest of Goddess Muthambikai’s idol here is a small piece of what looks like a snake’s tail.
• There are two separate temples here. Goddess Muthambikai’s temple is right in front of Lord Shiva’s temple.
• Lord Shiva’s temple has a 7-tiered main tower (Rajagopuram) with 2 corridors while the goddess’s temple has a 5-tiered main tower with a single corridor.
• This is one of the 44 Paadal petra sthalams where the “Moovar” (the three saints - Saint Thirugnanasambanthar, Saint Thirunavukarasar (Appar) and Saint Sundaramurthy (Sundarar) had rendered their Pathigams.
• Vannacharabam Sri Dandapani Swamigal lived in this place.
• The first “Kaumara Madam” was established here.

Important Festivals

10-day Brahmotsavam in the Tamil month of Panguni (Mar-Apr) is an important festival celebrated here.

Other important festivals celebrated in this temple are –

Shivrathri in the Tamil month of Masi (Feb-Mar),

Aadi Pooram in the Tamil month of Aadi (July-Aug),

Vinayakar Chaturthi in the Tamil month of Aavani (Aug-Sept),

Navrathri in the Tamil month of Purattasi (Sept-Oct) and

Annabishekam in the Tamil month of Aippasi (Oct–Nov).

Pradosham is also observed regularly.

Temple Timings 

From 06:30 AM to 12:00 Noon and 05:00 PM to 08:30 PM.

Temple Address

Sri Abirameswarar Temple,
Thiruvamathur Post,
Villupuram Taluk and District,
Tamil Nadu-605 402.
Tele: +91- 4146-223 379, 98430 66252.

This temple priests Shri Arunachala Gurukkal and Shri. A Mahesh Gurukkal can be contacted at +91 - 4146 223319, 98420 22544, 99768 87652.