Tirunelveli Nellaiyappar and Kanthimathi Temple Structure - Part 2

By -

Read: Tirunelveli Nellaiyappar and Kanthimathi Temple Structure - Part 1


Tirunelveli, an ancient South Indian city, has the famous Nellaiyappar and Kanthimathi temple. In my previous blog posts, I had written about the legend of the Nellaiyappar temple and its layout and structure. This blog post is a continuation of those posts, where I will write more about the temple's architecture and iconography.


As I have already mentioned, the temple of Nellaiyappar and Kanthimathi was originally two temples and was linked later. Let me talk about the structure of the Kanthimathi Amman temple in this article.


Nellaiyappar Temple - Sculpture
The entrance of Kanthimathi Amman Temple is adorned with a beautiful Raja Gopuram (tower). The tower was built in the year of 1626 CE. There are two small shrines of Lord Ganesha and Lord Murugan on either side of the tower entrance. Upon entering the tower, we find "Unjal Mandapam", a hall where religious discourses happen. There is open space on the left side of the hall, and to its right, there is a temple tank. The tank is very popular in Tirunelveli and is named 'Pottramarai'. It is believed that Lord Shiva is in the form of water, and Lord Brahma came here with a golden flower (Pottramarai).

Towards the sanctum of Kanthimathi, there is flagstaff (Kodi maram) and Nandi mandapam. On the left side is Aayiram Kal Mandapam or thousand pillared hall. However, the hall has less number of pillars and not one thousand. 

The sanctum enshrines Goddess Kanthimathi, the consort of Lord Nellaiyappar (Shiva). She is in a standing posture with two arms. She holds the lotus and parrot in her arms. At her shrine's entrance are Ganga and Yamuna's icons. 

Nellaiyappar Temple Corridor
The corridor (prakara) surrounding the Kanthimathi shrine has small shrines for Lord Ganesha, Murugan, Chandikeswara and the processional image of Shanmukha (Arumuga Nayinaar). 

There is another big prakara surrounding the Kanthimathi shrine. It has another tank named 'Karu mari' tank. The legend is that the saint Durvasa cursed a king named Indiraththuiman to become an elephant. The elephant took a bath in this tank to get rid of the curse and got its human form back. There is a small shrine for Lord Ganesha near the tank.



Let me continue describing the temple structure in the next post. Till then...

Happy travelling.

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





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Tallest Murugan of Chennai

By -
Image
Consecrated in March 2021, the 40 feet high Bala Murugan icon at Saveetha Medical College campus is the tallest image of Murugan in Chennai. Malaysia has 140 feet tall Murugan. In April 2022, the 146 feet tall image of Murugan was consecrated near Salem in Tamil Nadu. However, they are all stucco images. But, the one that we find on the college campus is a monolithic granite icon. Thus, it is the tallest stone icon of Murugan in the entire world. A stone weighing 320 tonnes was brought from Siruvambur near Wallajah, and it was carved to 140 tonnes to get this beautiful and gigantic sculpture. The entire temple complex is designed in the shape of the Devanagiri letter "Om", which can be appreciated in the aerial view.  The west-facing gigantic sculpture is located atop the star-shaped pedestal. It dominates the entire landscape. A large meditation hall is situated below the pedestal. On the open corridor in front of the presiding deity, smaller shrines are found. They enshrine
Read more

Little known Nimishamba Temple of Chennai

By -
Image
Site Name:  Nimishamba Temple Site Type:  Hindu Temple Location:   Kasi Chetty Street, Sowcarpet, Chennai city, Tamil Nadu state, India Highlights:   A rare temple of Nimishamba in Chennai city Nearest Railway Station:   Chennai - well connected from the cities/towns all over India Nearest Airport:   Chennai has both national and international airports How to reach:   Easily reachable by road as this is centrally located in the city Hotel:  Many star hotels, luxury hotels/resorts, and budget hotels are available in Chennai Restaurants:  All options - vegetarian, non-vegetarian, Chinese, South Indian, Gujarati, North Indian, Punjabi,....- you can find everything in Chennai city Chennai is considered as the gateway to South India. The capital city of Tamil Nadu state of India has hundreds of tourist sites which include museum, British period monuments, temples, beach, etc. Let us explore a little known temple called Nimishamba temple located in Chennai. Nimishamba is anothe
Read more

A 17th century Dargah with healing power - Mount Road Dargah, Chennai, India

By -
Image
Mount Road or Anna Salai is one of the most happening places in  Chennai . There are two famous Islamic shrines on Mount Road – one is  Thousands Light mosque . The other one is Dargah-e-Hazrath Syed Moosa Shah Qadri Baghdadi (Rahmatullah Alaihi), also known as Mount Road Dargah. It is the most popular Dargah across the city. It draws devotees of all faiths and all walks of life. Especially every Thursday, a large number of devotees gather to the Dargah. A lot of city-based celebrities regularly visit the site. This Dargah is the shrine of a Muslim Saint named Hazrath Syed Moosa Shah Qadri Baghdadi. He was also known as Rahmatullah Alaihi. Hazrath Syed Moosa Shah Qadri Baghdadi arrived from Baghdad in the middle of the 17th Century CE. He made Chennai his home and lived here. It is believed that he had healing powers. During his time, he had so many devotees regularly visiting him. After his demise, his family buried him next to his house, which is the current Dargah. You can easily lo
Read more