Vridhagireeswar Temple - Chennai

Unamancheri is a small village located near Tambaram on the outskirts of Chennai city of Tamil Nadu state in India. In this village, there is a beautiful Vijayanagara period temple of Kodanda Ram is located. Hardly at a distance of about 200-300 meters from this temple, there is another ancient temple of Lord Shiva located. This article is to focus on that temple.

Vridhagireeswar is the name of Shiva in this temple. This east-facing temple does not have a tower or flagstaff.

Vridhagireeswar is a big Shiv Linga found in the east-facing sanctum. Vridhamika is the Goddess found in the separate south-facing shrine. Both the shrines and the small Maha Mandap are situated inside an enclosure. The pillars in the Maha Mandap have many interesting sculptures. At this entrance, the idols of Ganesh and Subramanya-Valli-Devasena are found.

Nandi mandapa and bali peetha are found facing toward the sanctum. But the entrance to the enclosure is in the south direction. Hence, a wall is between the east-facing Shiv Linga and Nandi.

Nardana Ganapati, Dakshinamurit, Vishnu, Brahma and Durga are found as the Koshta Murtis. All are new idols and do not seem to belong to the original period.

Bhairava and Navagrahas's icon and their respective vaahans are also found in this temple.

I heard that the copper plate inscriptions found in the Kodanda Rama temple have references to this temple. This temple was believed to have been built during the period of Krishnadeva Raya of Vijayanagara.

Happy travelling.