275 Thevara Shivasthalam !! Thiruchaikkadu Sri Chayavaneshwarar Temple!!

Jai Sriman Narayana !!



Jaya Jaya Sankara Hara Hara Sankara !!








Thiruchaikkadu/Chayavanam is one of the 275 Thevara Shivasthalam of Lord Shiva located 24km away from Mayiladuthurai, Shirkazhi, Tamil Nadu.  This is one of the six holiest temples equivalent to Varanasi.   It is one of the oldest temples built by the Kings of Chola Dynasty.  Worship of Lord Chayavaneshwara in Thiruchaikkadu provides the entire devoutness equivalent to the visit of   Lord Kasi Vishwanathar at Varanasi.  The other six holiest temples which are equal to Varanasi are Thiruvenkadu Sri Swethanarayaneshwarar,  Mayavaram Sri Mayuranathar, Thiruvaiyaru Sri Panchanatheshwarar, Thiruvidaimaruthur Sri Mahalingeshwarar and  Thiruvanchiyam Sri Vanchinathar respectively.  One of the 63 prominent Shivaite Saints Thiru Iyarpakai Nayanar attained Salvation in this sacred land.  In this temple Lord Shiva worshipped in the form of a self-manifested linga.



Presiding deity – Sri Chayavaneshwarar with his consort Goddess Sri Kuyilinamozhial/Kuyilinim Nanmozhi Ammai



Mangalasasanam – Thiru Gnana Sambandhar , Thirunavukkarasar



Sannidhis – Lord Ganesha, Lord Subramanya, Lord Indra, Lord Surya, Thiru Iyarpakai Nayanar with his consort,



The legend has that Devamatha Adhithi had a long cherished desire to worship Lord Chayavaneshwar.  Once, she left Indra Loka and arrived on this sacred land on Earth to worship Lord Chayavaneshwar.  This made a huge chaos in the Devaloka in her absence.   Son of Devamatha - Lord Indra worriedly started searching for his mother and arrived on this sacred land.  Lord Indra decided to relocate the temple of Chayavaneshwar to Deva Loka in order to gratify his mother and for continued worship of Lord Chayavaneshwar.   He assigned this enormous task to his elephant Iravatha.  While the work was in progress Lord Shiva appeared before Lord Indra and most pleased Lord advised Indra to drop his very idea of repositioning the temple and blessed him. 



This temple remains open from 7.00AM to 12.00PM in the morning and 4.00PM to 7.30 PM in the evening.

Please follow the link to read the life of Thiru Iyarpakai Nayanar: http://indiatempletour.blogspot.com/2011/12/life-of-63-nayanmars-life-of-thiru.html
Jaya Jaya Sankara Hara Hara Sankara !!

Jai Sriman Narayana !!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thank you the pic also is wonderful,

Regards
Nandita.