Marundeeswarar Temple
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Marundeeswarar Temple is a legendary temple located in the breezy area of Thiruvanmiyur, Chennai. This may be the biggest temple in Thiruvanmiyur. This is a magnificent temple built for Lord Shiva, in his incarnation of Lord Marundeeswarar. Lord Marundeeswarar is said to have the power to heal.
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[edit] Mythology
Lord Marundeeswarar is known so because he taught sage Agastya about some magical medicine. Since then The Marundeeswarar temple has been a place of worship for people with diseases and various problems with their health. It is said that even The Sage Valmiki, who wrote The Ramayana, came here to The Marundeeswarar temple to worship The Lord. Sage Valmiki was said to be blessed here. After this incident, this place was to be known as Thiruvalmikiyur, after a long period of time, the name gradually changed to Thiruvanmiyur. There is a place present in Thiruvanmiyur called Valmiki Nagar in his honour. There is also a temple built for Sage Valmiki in the middle of the East Coast Road. The temple is built very close to the Marundeewarar temple. It came as a surprise that the builders of the ECR (East Coast Road) had even considered demolition of the temple of Sage Valmiki in order to complete the project (of building the ECR). The high court of Tamil Nadu then directed that the temple be in its place and not to disturb it.
[edit] The Temple
[edit] The Architecture
The temple has two entrances, one from East Coast Road and the other from West Tank Street. The Entrance from the West Tank Street has got three gates whereas the entrance from the East Coast Road has only one gate. The entrance from the East Coast road leads to the 'McDonalds', where the deity faces.
[edit] The Shrines
The temple is divided into Shrines. There are shrines for Lord Ganesha, Lord Murugan, Lord Shiva, which has the idols of Lord Shiva in his three forms, Lord Theyagaraja, Lord Marundeeswarar, and Lord Nataraja. Lord Nataraja is supposed to be Lord Shiva in his dancing form. Lord theyagaraja and Lord Nataraja are the only forms of Lord Shiva in which he without the lingam form. The last shrine is for Lord Marundeeswarar's consort, Lordess Thirupurasundari, who is actually Lordess Parvati.( The order of shrines given is the order which is supposed to be followed while worshipping the idols). The sculpture of the temple is accurate, and has a lot of detail in it.
[edit] The Deities
The Primary deity, The Marundeeswarar Lingam is said to be formed naturally and has not been sculpted by anyone. This formation is known as Idumbu in Tamil. In the Mahamandapam where The deity resides, there are 108 lingams, and the replicas of the five lingams of the five elements. The divine cow Kamadhenu is believed to be delivering milk to the lingam daily and the lingam is hence white. For this reason, the lingam here is also called 'Paalvannanathar' (in Tamil, 'Paal' means milk, 'Vanna' means colour). And hence, Paalvannanathar means 'one whose colour is that of milk'.
