Tiruvotriyur Agasteeswara Temple

Tiruvotriyur is on the northern outskirts of Chennai. The history of Chennai city can be dated only to a few hundred years back. However, the neighborhood of Tiruvotriyur is an ancient town. Tiruvotriyur is famous mainly because of the magnificent temple of Tyagaraja (Lord Shiva) and Vadivudai Amman. In the street where the temple of Vadivudai Amman and Tyagaraja is located, there is a small old temple for Agasteeswara. It is believed that the great saint Agastya visited this temple; hence, the deity is called Agasteeswara.

Even though the Agasteeswarar temple of Tiruvotriyur is believed to be an ancient temple, the current structure seems to be new. The small beautiful temple faces the north direction, which is unusual.

The temple's presiding deity is a small Shiva Linga named Agasteeswarar or Kubera Lingam. It faces the unusual north direction. The goddess Akhilandeswari is found in a separate shrine.

The wall around the sanctum has niche images of Ganesha, Dakshinamurti, Vishnu, Brahma and Durga. Chandikeshwara is found in his usual location.

The inner prakara of the temple has the icons of Selva Ganapati, Subramanya with Valli and Devasena, Surya, Bhairava, Nalvar (four main devotees of Lord Shiva), Kaliyamurti Nayanar - an important devotee of Lord Shiva, and Agastya - the saint who visited this temple.

The temple's outer corridor (prakara) has the images of Selva Ganapati, Nagas (snakes), Vinayaka and Murugan.

When you go to Tiruvottiyur, besides visiting the famous Tyagaraja temple, do visit this temple too.

Happy travelling.

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