Loga Nayaga Shani Eswaran shrine
Loga Nayaga Shani Eswaran shrine is located at Puliakulam, Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu. The Shani Idol is seven foot tall, made of pure iron, and stands on a stone peedam called Dhanusthula. An iron crow which is Shani's vaahana stands in front of him.
It is the first iron made Shani idol in the world, so called as Loga nayaga means in Tamil Uloga Nayaga and Ulaga Nayagan or commonly loga nayaga .
Temple history
A devotee named T.Rajendaran goes pilgrim every year to himalayas especially Amarnath yatra , once while return yatra meet a Digambara Naga Sadhu named Narayana Ghri Maharaj in Jammu, and similarly sadhu was waiting long time to get a right person with perfection to make iron idol for lord shani. The meeting made happy deed and started making idol in Coimbatore for one year and completed. On next yatra meet Sadhu taught him lord shani’s worship methods and strongly instructed that idol can be placed any were in south india and should be in holy place .Came back to native and searching location for long , approached many temples controlled by govt, mostly opposed to fix fearful lord shani. Seeing his strains and devotions puliakulam mariamman temple officers given approval to keep idol temporarily in temple's old stock room till suitable place found. He keep on searching right location to fix and parallelly every Saturday open the dark stock room and perform simple pooja to idol with small gingili Prasad to peoples and crows , after pooja the door will be closed and handover the key to temple officers. Hardly 7 years past like this and he couldn’t find the location. He was worried to celebrate upcoming SHANI PEYARCHI day to idle idol. One day heavy rain start continues a week,which broke the stock room, top roof and side walls were broken and junk materials were washed away. after rain stops officers and he went to see the rain affected part and saw the idol alone left standing rock solid in his position despite continuous non stop heavy rain for a week, spontaneously on what he expected clean location, Temple officers accepted to fix it as it stands. Devotees visit mariamman temple seen this unseen iron idol in open sky and sponsored iron roof tops and iron pillars to make a temple. Finally in a week time shani peryachi day came and celebrated success full with kumba abisekam. This year 2014 huge celebration is expected during Shani Peyarchi.
Access
Visiting the shine is very easy by city bus. It is near to the world's largest 190 tonne single stone idol Arulmigu Munthi Vinayagar temple, Puliakulam, Coimbatore.
References
http://epaper.dailythanthi.com/showxml.aspx?id=16502117&code=1563
http://epaper.dinamani.com/397254/Dinamani-Coimbatore/17122014#page/3/2