Kasi Viswanathar Temple - George Town, Chennai

Kasi Viswanathar Temple is one of the oldest temples of George Town locality in Chennai. This locality is the original Madras, which was developed by the Britishers. As per a few records, the temple was built in 1806 CE. During the colonial period, many temples were constructed in this area. It is one of those temples.

The temple is located on Krishnappa Naicken Tank Street in Kondithope. The vast tank covering an area of 1.5 acres is adjoining. Unfortunately, the tank has no water. Perhaps, it never had water in the past several decades. Who is this Krishnappa Naicken, after which the tank, as well as the street, was named? Did he construct this temple? We don't know. In fact, an Agraharam named after him (Krishnappa Agraharam) is located nearby.

The temple is famous in this locality. Most North Indian devotees who stay nearby are daily and regular temple visitors.

The east-facing temple has no gopuram. The east-facing sanctum enshrines a mid-sized Shiv Linga (Kasi Viswanathar). The Goddess Visalakshi is found in a separate south-facing shrine in the inner prakara. Annapoorni is also found in the shrine of Visalakshi.

Ganesha, Dakshinamurti, Lingodbhava, Brahma, and Durga are the Koshta icons.

The sub-shrines of Ganesh, Subramanya-Valli-Devasena, Shiv Linga-Uma, Nataraja (metal icon), Navagraha, Shaneeswara, Srinivasa-Sri Devi-Bhoo Devi, Shanmukha-Valli-Devasena, Chandikeswara, and Ayyapa are also located in this temple.

There is also an outer prakara, which is spacious and open to the sky.

The images of Bhairava, Ganesha, Veerabhadra, Saraswati, Surya, and Chandra are also found in the different sections of the temple.

Happy travelling.