Guduvanchery Nandeeswarar Temple

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When I wrote this article in 2009, Nandivaram was not known much. Now, due to Government's announcement on moving the inter-city bus stand to this village, this has become a bit popular. It is located near Guduvanchery town, which is around 35 km south of Chennai.

The main attraction of Nandivaram is the ancient and beautiful Nandeeswarar temple. If you think that the temple is dedicated to Nandi, the holy bull vahana of Lord Shiva, you are mistaken. In this temple, the presiding deity is Shiva Linga and he is named Nandeeswara. 

The Goddess Soundara Nayaki is found in a separate shrine. 

Ganesha, Subramanya-Valli-Devasena, Navagraha and Chandikeshwara are found in their respective sub-shrines. The images of Ganesha, Shanmukha, Surya, Bhairava and Veerabhadra are also located in the temple premises.

Ganesha, Dakshinamurti, Vishnu, Brahma and Durga are found as the Koshta icons on the walls around the sanctum.

As per the legend, Lord Brahma advised churning the celestial sea to obtain "amrita", the divine drink, which would help the Devas turn immortal. Devas, unable to churn the ocean alone, sought the help of the Asuras. However, before they could get amrita, poison came out of the sea. Lord Shiva consumed the poison and saved this universe. 

In the end, Dhanwantari appeared with amrita pot in his hand. After the brief quarrel with the Asuras, the Devas retrieved the pot and consumed amrita. The Devas started singing, dancing and enjoying. They totally forgot Lord Shiva due to who they were alive. After some time, they realized their mistake and apologized to him. Shiva forgave them and danced in the middle of his vaahana, Nandi's horns, and hence he was known as Nandeeswarara. Even though the temple is old, it should have been rebuilt multiple times as there are no antique signs in the temple except for the images.

Happy travelling.

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





Location: Guduvanchery, Tamil Nadu, India

Comments

  1. subbu the greatTuesday, October 06, 2009

    Hi KK., Nice info. How you came to know abt this temple? Its really rare to get this info. I find it so interesting everytime when u explore these kind of places. :):)

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownSaturday, March 30, 2013

    Hi this information is very much intresting and new one. Many people in this area it self they didnt know about this information. Thank you for this information.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownSaturday, March 30, 2013

    Hi this is very useful infomation thank you.

    ReplyDelete

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