Karaneeswarar Temple - Saidapet, Chennai

Karaneeswarar temple, located in Saidapet, is one of Chennai's famous temples, and the city is considered the gateway to South India.

The temple has south-facing seven storeyed colorful tower (raja gopuram), which is very well visible from a very long distance. The stucco images in the tower are beautiful. 

The east-facing sanctum enshrines Shiva Linga named Karaneeswara as the presiding deity.

The big sculptures of door guardians are beautiful. Additionally, the gate is adorned with images of Ganesha and Murugan.

The flag staff, bali peetha and Nandi are found facing the sanctum.

Next to the main shrine, the shrine of the goddess Chornambika is located.

The icons of Ganesha, Sekkizhar, 63 Nayanmars, Shiva Lingam, Bhairava, Chandikeshwara and Surya are found in the prakara. The outer wall of Karaneeswarar sanctum has beautiful niche images of Ganesha, Dakshinamurti, Vishnu, Brahma and Durga.

A sub-shrine has many utsava images such as Nataraja-Sivakami, Karaikal Ammaiyar, Somaskandar, Chandrasekhar, Bikshadanar, Shanmukha with Valli and Devasena, Murugan with Valli and Devasena, and some important nayanmars. All the images are exceptionally good; especially that of Karaikal Ammaiyar.

The outer prakara of the temple is too broad. There is a shrine for another Shiv Linga named Vedagiriswarar - it is bigger than the main deity Karaneeswarar. He is found along with his consort Tripura Sundari. There are sub-shrines for Shaneeswarar, Navagrahas, Veerabhadra, and Anjaneya. Nandi is found the opposite of Veerabhadra, which is generally not the case in other temples. 

There are two more prominent shrines in the outer prakara - one for Palani and another for Siva Subramanyaalong with his two consorts, Valli and Devasena.

 

The temple tank is located at a small distance from the temple, which is big and beautiful.

Happy travelling.

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