A small Temple but very powerful - Chinna Kadai Renuka Parameswari Temple, Chennai, India

Chennai, one of the main cities of South India, has its major North Indian population in an area named Sowcarpet. Sowcarpet area is located very next to the main railway station of the city, Central Railway Station. This area is a part of George Town area, and George Town area is considered as the original Madras/Chennai and this is where British started acquiring Chennai and its surrounding. In due course of time, Chennai/Madras got expanded and became a big city.

Even though the Sowcarpet/George Town area is congested with a lot of shops and commercial complexes along with its narrow and highly crowded streets, it also has a lot of temples. Some of those temples are very prominent and 200-400 years old. Chinna Kadai Mariamman aka Renuka Parameswari Temple is one such old and prominent temple of this area.

Chinna Kadai Mariamman Temple, which is also called as Renuka Parameswari Temple, is located at the junction of NSC Bose Road and Mint Street in Sowcarpet area. The distance of the temple from Central Railway Station is hardly 1.5 km. This place can be reached either by auto rickshaw or cycle rickshaw. (Sowcarpet is one of the very few areas in Chennai city where you can still find cycle rickshaws). Or else, you can walk down to the temple from the nearby bus stop or railway station. If you come by your own car, parking might be a little problem as the area is congested.

Chinna Kadai Mariamman Temple aka Renuka Parameswari Temple is more than 200 years old. Even though this is very small temple, the goddess is considered as very powerful and it is always crowded. There are a lot of shop owners in the Sowcarpet area who do not open their shops without getting “darshan” of this goddess. The main shrine of the temple has two idols – Mariamman idol which has just a head of woman goddess and another idol with full human body (Renuka Parameswari). Apart from the main shrine, there is a shrine for Lord Shiva in the form of Kasi Viswanath along with his consort Vishalaxi. The highlight of the temple is that camphor burns always in front of the temple. Swami Vivekananda and Vallalar have visited this temple.

When you happen to visit Chennai, ensure that you visit this famous small temple.

Happy travelling.


View Larger Map