Body Guard Muneeswaran Temple, Chennai

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Muneeswaran is a popular village deity of Tamil Nadu. In and around Chennai, a lot of Muneeswaran temples are found. Some of them are small roadside temples, and some have gigantic images of Muneeswaran in the open air. He is called under different names such as Jada Muni, Kottai Muni, Pal Muni, etc. There is a small roadside temple on Pallavan Salai near Central Railway Station, in which he has a peculiar name, Body Guard Muneeswaran.


This temple is tiny, but it is always crowded. Whoever owns a vehicle in Chennai would have visited this temple or at least heard about this for sure. It is believed that the temple protects vehicles from road accidents. Pallavan Salai is always crowded with cars, mainly due to this temple.


What does the legend say? In 1919 CE, a few laborers from the North Arcot district brought the idol of Muneeswaran with them. The laborers placed the icon under a neem tree adjoining the military barracks. A British troop commander objected to this. He met with an accident on the same day. After that, he allowed the deity to stay there. Then, many devotees, especially the drivers of various vehicles, started believing that this deity would save them from accidents and started visiting this temple. This is the story of Muneeswaran, who is supposed to protect you from accidents and hence he got a unique name called ‘Body guard’.


The legend mentioned above is just a legend, and it's not a historical fact. There is no record of the origin of this temple. There are so many such roadside Muneeswaran temples found on the lanes and streets of George Town. This became popular, and the others remain unknown. Pallavan Salai was initially known as Body Guards Lines Road. The bodyguards of the British Governor used to live here. Probably, due to this reason, the people started referring to this deity as Body Guard Muneeswaran.


It is common practice in Tamil Nadu for the people to stop their vehicles for a moment in the temple located on the border whenever they travel to the other villages or towns. This practice is even followed nowadays all across the state. The same pattern was probably observed in this temple when the boundaries of the city were much shorter. This practice would have developed as the one which we see today. 


Happy travelling.



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









Location: Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Comments

  1. Pai :) A million $Sunday, April 30, 2017

    Can you please tell me what r the timing and what all should be taken there for the pooja

    ReplyDelete

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