Vadapalani Murugan Temple, Chennai

Vada Palani Andavan temple in Vadapalani is one of the most famous temples of Chennai city. 

There are six most important temples for Lord Murugan, which are known as Arupadai Veedu. One of those temples is located in a small town named Palani. As Chennai is located to the north of Palani, this temple to Palani Andavan is called 'Vada Palani Andvan temple'. (The word 'Vada' means north in the Tamil language.)

There lived a devotee of Murugan named Annaswami Tambiran. In a small hut, he had kept a picture of Murugan and used to meditate. One day, he experienced a sort of divine power entering into his body. Since then, he started getting into a trance and uttering wise words (called Arul Vakku in Tamil). Many believed that his words healed their problems. After his demise, his disciple Ramaswamy uttered Arul Vakku. During his time in the early 20th century CE, this place was developed as a temple, with the aid of public collected funds). Even today, we can find the same old picture of Murugan in the meditation hall in the temple.

The temple is very big and has entrances in all four directions. The sanctum is facing the east direction. However, the south direction entrance is prominent and is used by the people as the main entrance. The five-tiered Gopuram at this entrance is bigger than the other three towers of the temple.

The sanctum enshrines the beautiful icon of Murugan. He is in a standing posture and is 4 feet tall. There are two prakaras around the sanctum. The sanctum wall has niche images of Ganesha, Dakshinamurti, Vishnu, Brahma and Durga. 

The flagstaff and bali peetha are found facing the sanctum.

In the inner prakara, there are many small-sized icons such as Nalvar, Surya, Chandra, Chandikeshwara, Shaneeswara, Vaiyapuri Pandya, Vishwanatha Linga and Vishalakshi, Maha Lakshmi, Bhairava, Veerabhadra, Subramanya-Valli-Devasena, Naga Subramanya and Nataraja.

There are many sub-shrines situated in this temple, including Vara Siddhi Vinayaka, Chokkanathar Linga, Meenakshi, Shanmukha-Valli-Devasena, Angarak (Chevvai), Arunagirinathar, Subramanya-Valli-Devasena and Hanuman.

A massive temple tank is situated outside the temple complex.

There is a big hall in this temple where generally marriages and essential functions are arranged. Hundreds of weddings happen in this temple every year. Also, devotees sacrifice their hair by tonsuring their heads (mundan/mottai) in this temple.

Happy travelling.

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