Navagraha Sthalams in South India

As legend goes there was a sage named Kalava. He suffered from severe leprosy. To get completely cured from leprosy he worshiped nine planets. All nine planets, pleased with worship of Sage Kalava, fulfilled sage’s wish to get cured. However, Lord Brahma was not pleased with this as he thought planets had violated orders of Lord Shiva that planets were supposed to only give effects of good and bad karma of human beings. He cursed planets that they will suffer from leprosy. Planets came on earth and stayed at white wild flower forest (Vellerukku vanam) where they worshiped Lord Shiva to get cured of leprosy. Lord Shiva was pleased by their worship. He said to them that the place where they worshiped belonged to them and they should stay there and grace the people who worship them by removing their hardships. That is how Navagraha temples came into existence. The temples construction dates back to the period of Chola dynasty. Together these temples are called as Navagraha Sthalam. All of them are located very close to Kumbhakonam.

All these temples can be visited in 2-3 days. Besides these there are other places also where we can find individual temples for the Navagrahas. In our subsequent articles we will be giving an account of each temple.

Navgraha	Location	Name of Lord Shiva	Name of His Consort	Other Name for Khetra
Suryan (The Sun)	Suriyanar Koil	Shri Suryanadar	Shri Prakashambikai	Arkavanam (Durva forest)
Chandran ( The Moon)	Thingaloor	Shri Kailashnadar	Shri Periyanayaki
Angaraka ( Sevvai )	The Mars Vaitheeswarankoil	Shri Vaidyanadar	Shri Thaiyalnayaki	Pulliarukku-Velur
Budan ( The mercury)	Trivenkadu	Shri Shwetaranyeshwar	Shri Bramhavidyambika
Guru ( The Vyazhan-Jupiter)	Alangudi	Shri Apath Sahaya Eshwar	Shri Vallielavar Kuzali
Sukran (Velli-The Venus)	Kanjanoor	Shri Agnipurishwarar	Shri Karpagambal
Sani ( The Saturn)	Thirunallar	Shri Dharbaranyeswarar	Shri Pranaambikai
Raghu	Thirunageswaram	Shri Senbagaaraneshwar	Shri Giribhujambika
Kethu	Keezhaperumpallam	Shri Naagnadar	Shri Naagambika