Tiruvottiyur Tyagarajar and Vadivudai Amman Temple - Part 3

I wrote several posts earlier to explain the Tyagarajar temple at Tiruvottiyur near Chennai. This post continues to those posts where I will continue to write about the temple structure.

When the entire universe was getting destroyed, Brahma prayed to Lord Shiva so that he would get the power to create the universe again. Shiva appeared in the form of a yoga Agni and granted the required authority to Brahma. The Agni kund became the temple, and the Agni became the Lord of the temple - Adi Pureeswarar. The site got exempted from getting destroyed and hence got the name 'Tiruvotriyur'.

In the previous post, I wrote about certain shrines and icons of the temple. Let me continue from where I stopped. Opposite the dhwajastambha (flagstaff), there is a shrine for a big Ganesha. The adjacent shrine has a big Murugan sculpture. Adjacent to that, there is a shrine for Shiva Linga named 'Kulandai Eswarar'. Instead of moving towards the right, if we turn towards the left and move interior, we can find the shrine of Tyagaraja.

There is a small hall (mandapa) in front of the Tyagaraja shrine. Tyagaraja is the name given to the Somaskanda manifestation of Shiva. (In South India, people write Tyagaraja as 'Thyagaraja'.) Somaskanda and Tyagaraja are the forms of Shiva, which is found along with Shakti and Skanda in-between. Somaskanda icons can be found in many temples, generally as metal icons (procession icons) and not stone ones. This form is called Tyagaraja in a few temples, especially in seven important temples, referred to as 'Sapta Vitanka Sthalams'. The seven temples where Tyagaraja is found are Tiruvarur, Tirunallar, Nagapattinam, Tirukkaravayil, Tirukkuvalai, Tiruvaaimur, and Tirumaraikkadu. Even though Tiruvottiyur is not one of those Sapta Vitanka temples, Tyagaraja of Tiruvottiyur is very famous and ancient. Even though the temple's presiding deity is Adi Pureeswarar, the temple is referred to as Tyagaraja temple.

Tyagaraja shrine in Tiruvottiyur temple is very spacious. The procession icons of Tyagaraja, Uma to his left, and Skanda in between them are found in the shrine. There is a small corridor (prakara) that surrounds the shrine. The wall of the prakara has the niche images of Ganesha, Dakshinamurti, Vishnu and Brahma. The same shrine houses the processional metal image of Tripurasundari too. Tyagaraja's shrine is on the way to the main shrine of Adi Pureeswarar. I will write about the Adi Pureeswarar shrine in my next post.

Till then... Happy travelling.

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