Edayarpakkam Mahadevar Temple

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Edayarpakkam is a small village located at a distance of around 65 km from Chennai. The nearest well-known site is Thakolam, which is at a distance of 9 km from here. This village has a beautiful stone temple built in the 11th century. Let us discuss about this temple in this article.

The village is spelled Edayarpakkam and pronounced as Idaiyar Pakkam. The small east-facing temple is called as Mahadevar temple. It is a stone temple built during the reign of Kulotunga Chola I in the 11th century CE. (Chola period inscriptions are found in this temple to prove this.) The temple is tiny and does not have a gopura or flagstaff.

The historical name of the village is Raja Vidyadhara Chadur Vedi Mangalam. It was also called Idaiyattrup Pakkam in those days. The actual name of the presiding deity is Tiruppada Kadudaiyar. He is called Mahadevar nowadays.

This temple just has the main shrine, and there are no other sub-shrines. The sanctum enshrines Shiv Linga called Mahadevar. A small Vishnu icon is also found in the shrine. It was found during a recent excavation, and someone placed Vishnu adjacent to Shiv Linga. Hence, this temple of Shiva has Vishnu also in the main shrine. (I hope few years down the line, someone might cook up a new story or theory of why both the icons are kept here. We might get a new interesting legend. :-) )

The upper portion of the vimana is broken, and only half of the Vimana exists today. The Vimana is built as per the Gaja prshtha style.

The Koshta (niche) images around the main shire are beautiful. Ganesha, Dakshinamurti, Brahma and Vishnu Durga are found as the Koshta icons. The niche on the backside of the shrine has no icon. There is no Chandikeshwara sub-shrine.

There is no icon or shrine for Goddess.

Nandi and bali peetha are found facing the main shrine.

A newly made or found small Ganesha is located below a tree in the temple complex.

Such a beautiful heritage site - it is sad to find this lying unknown!

Happy travelling.







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



Location: Edayarpakkam, Tamil Nadu 631553, India

Comments

  1. BharathMonday, April 08, 2019

    Vishnu idol might be in back side koshta as in other temple

    ReplyDelete

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