Saravana Poigai, Thiruporur (Waterbodies of Chennai - 23)

Located about 50 km from Chennai, Thiruporur has a Murugan temple, the most famous temple for Murugan in and around Chennai. Historically, the original temple can be dated back to 1118-1133 AD (king Vikrama Chola's period). As few Pallava inscriptions are found in the temple, some date the original temple even to the Pallava period. The temple had lost importance in due course. A saint named Chidambara Swamigal unearthed the images from an anthill and rebuilt the temple with great difficulty in the middle of the 17th century CE. Click here to learn more about this temple. 

The well-maintained temple tank covering an area of about 2.75 acres, is one of the significant landmarks of this village. This is perhaps the most photographed site here. It is named Saravana Poigai. It is said that this temple tank has never dried up, thanks to the underground freshwater springs. In the middle of the tank, there is a granite mandap. 

It is said that a water stream called Valliar Odai ran on the west side of the temple, and it was converted into the Saravana Poigai tank by Chidambara Swamigal in the 17th century CE. 

Happy travelling. 

Note: As per a report, there were about 650+ waterbodies in the Chennai region till the 1980s. Today, only a fraction of them exist. And most of those surviving waterbodies hardly have water, and even some of them that have water have been poorly shrunk. In Chennai, there are tank roads without tanks nearby and lake-view roads without lakes. There is a high possibility that even the few waterbodies we have today might vanish soon. I decided to visit the currently surviving waterbodies of Chennai and its suburbs and write about them in my blog as a series.

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