Velleeswarar Temple, Mylapore, Chennai

Velleswarar temple is the third Sapta Sthana Shiva temple (most important seven temples) of Mylapore in Chennai. It is located at South Mada street and is very close to the famous Kapaleeswara temple.

Legend

As per the legend, a rat incidentally raised the lamp's wicks in a temple, which was about to burn out, while it was trying to eat the ghee from the lamp. Lord Shiva, who was pleased with the rat, blessed it to be reborn as Mahabali in the next birth. 

Mahabali, the grandson of Bhakta Prahalada, was known for his charity and his power. The Devas were jealous of him. They sought Vishnu's help to pull him down. 

Vishnu took Vamana's incarnation (a dwarf) and was about to ask for three feet of space from Bali. Sukracharya, the Guru of Mahabali, came to know about this. He tried to stop Mahabali, but the latter did not listen. Hence, the Guru took the form of a bee and entered the kamandala vessel. He blocked the water from coming out so that the Asura could not grant and fulfill the wishes of the dwarf. Knowing this, Vamana pierced the eye of the bee and blinded Sukracharya. 

Sukracharya prayed to Lord Shiva of this temple and got his sight back. Hence, Lord Shiva is called Velleeswarar in this temple. (In Tamil, Velli means Sukra).

History

It is claimed that this temple is as old as Kapaaleeswarar temple. However, there is no record of the builder or the construction year. We can assume that the current structure was built sometime in the 17th or 18th century CE. It is unknown if there was an original temple where the existing structure stands today. 

Temple Layout

The south-facing temple has a five-tiered Raja Gopuram (tower). The stucco images depicting the stories related to this temple, such as rat worshiping Shiv Linga, Vamana with Mahabali, and others, are found on the tower.

Although the presiding deity of the temple is Shiva, the shrine that faces the entrance has Ganesha. Some people claim that this temple had only a Ganesh shrine initially, and later it was extended to add Shiva and others' shrines. 

Ganesha is known as Selva Vinayakar, here. He is found seated; behind him, another Ganesha, along with his two consorts Siddhi and Buddhi is found in the standing posture. It is a rare posture.

The presiding deity Velleeswarar is found as a small Shiv Linga in the east-facing shrine. The images of Dwarapalas are found at the entrance of this shrine. Nandi is found facing towards the direction of this shrine. The flagstaff, bali peetha and Nandi Mandap are located in the outer corridor.

The Goddess Kamakshi is found in a separate south facing shrine.

Ganesha, Dakshinamurti, Lingodbhava, Brahma and Durga are found as the Koshta (niche) idols on the outer wall of the Velleeswarar shrine. Chandikeshwara is found near Durga, as usual.

The prakara has so many sub-shrines and idols. The idols of Ganesha, Sekkizhar, Mei Kanda Sivam and three other saints, Nalvar, Ulagalanda Perumal, Bhairava, Surya, Veerabhadra, Lakshmi and Saraswati are found.

The sub-shrines of Sapta Matas, Muthukumara Swami with Valli-Devasena, the utsav murtis of Muthukumara Swami-Valli-Devasena, the big utsav murtis of Nataraj-Sivakami-Manickavasagar, the utsav murtis of Somaskanda, Vishwanatha (small Linga) and Annamalai (big Linga)-Unnamalai are all found in the prakara.

The small bronze images of Vyagrapada and Patanjali are also located in the sub-shrine of Nataraja. The sub-shrine of Muthukumara Swami has its own flagstaff. It should be noted that even Kamakshi does not have a separate flagstaff. 

There is another bigger sub-shrine that has all the remaining bronze images, such as Ganesha, Murugan-Valli-Devasena, Nataraja-Sivakami, Uma-Chandrasekhar, Nalvar, Ulagalanda Perumal and others. All the bronze idols of the temple look very attractive.

Navagraha shrine is found in the outer region. Shaneeswara is located in a separate sub-shrine nearby. There is a small Shiv Linga named Sukreshwara. Sukra is found worshiping this Linga. 

The newly constructed Sharbeshwara sub-shrine flanked by the shrines of Pratyingira and Shoolini is a significant attraction of the temple in recent times. 

Happy travelling.

Visit my site, krishnakumartk.com, to know more about the travel guides and other books that I have written.