Puttu Chokkanatha Temple - Madurai

If you are from Tamil Nadu, you would have definitely heard the story of "Pittukku Maan Sumandan" (Lord Shiva carrying sand for Puttu), thanks to the famous "Thiruvilaiyaadal" Tamil movie. Although the legend is recorded in Tiruvilaiyadal Puranam, the authentic book on Madurai (Sthala Puranam), people got familiar with this story due to the movie. This article is about the temple associated with this legend.

Let me talk about the legend before describing the temple. This legend is one of 64 Lilas or Tiruvilaiyaadals, as recorded in Tiruvilaiyaadal Puranam. The story goes like this...

Madurai was ruled by Arimardana Pandya. During his period, the city was hit by a massive flood. The King ordered the citizens to block the river water by filling the banks with sand. Every house in the town was supposed to provide at least one person on this task.

There lived an old lady who was a great devotee of Lord Shiva. She had no one else in her family, and she was too senior and weak to carry sand and build the barrier. She was worried about the King's order. Lord Shiva disguised himself as a boy and came to help his devotee. He agreed to carry sand on behalf of this old lady, and in return, she had to give him Pittu daily. (Pittu or Puttu is a kind of rice pudding).

The boy happily ate Puttu, but it never worked. He would go to the site and sleep well under a tree. One day, the King came to the site to audit the work. On seeing this lazy boy, the furious King beat him on his back with a stick. The boy disappeared, and everyone on the earth felt the pain in their back. The King realized his mistake and sought forgiveness from Lord Shiva. Shiva appeared to the King and blessed him. The poor old lady was given salvation.

Now, let us look into the site. The locality is Arapalayam in Madurai. It is located near the banks of the river Vaigai. It is believed that this is where the legend mentioned above took place. We have a temple situated on this site. It is called as Puttu Thoppu Chokkanathar Temple.

The temple is completely renovated. The small temple is crowded with so many idols. Many of them are new idols. Near the temple, there is a big mandapa with a beautiful vimana. The style appears to be of the Nayaka period. The pillars of the mandapa have interesting images. There is a small shrine of Ganesha found on the mandapa.

The temple has Chokkanatha (Shiv Linga) and Meenakshi shrines. Two Nandi idols are found in front of those shrines.

Many idols such as Bhairava, Sapta Matas, Veerabhadrai (female form of Bhadra), Ganesha, Kalyana Subramanya-Valli-Devasena, Saraswati, Lakshmi, Dakshinamurti, Murugan, Iyappa, Kaliya Nayanar, Nalvar (four saints), Navagraha, Hanuman, Durga, Lingodbhava and Chandikeswara are found in the temple.

The temple has no vimana, gopura, or flagstaff.

A school is running in some parts of the temple. A Shiv Linga shrine is found inside the school campus.

Every year, during the Tamil month of Avani, the festival called Puttu Tiruvizha is celebrated on this site. The utsava idol of Sundaresar from Meenakshi temple would be brought here. The sport of carrying sand for Puttu is enacted as part of the celebration.

Happy travelling.

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