Rudragni Dakshinmukhi Maruti Jirnoddhar Mahakumbhabhishek

Mahakumbhishek ceremony of Rudragni Dakshinmukhi Maruti is planned on April 29 and Arpil 30 of this year. Below are the details of the event.

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

Sapta Sthanams

There are seven places, around Thiru-Vaiyaru along the banks of river Kauveri, which are related to the marriage of Nandi (Lord Shiva’s mount). Nandi was the son of Siladamaharshi. Due to penance and un-paralleled devotion of son of Siladamaharshi, he was named as Nandi and given the place among Shivaganas by Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva arranged the marriage of Nandideva with Swayambikai. According to the Purana, Lord Shiva took the newly wed couple to seven places as a part of the saptapadi. These places are known as Saptha-sthanam and the temple of Lord Shiva at these places are reminders of the marriage of Nandi with Swayambikai. It is believed that the marriage took place at Thirumazhapadi near Thiruvaiyaru. For this marriage, Lord Shiva arranged the fruits from Thirupazhanam, food from Thiruchotruthurai, vedic bramhins from  Thiruvedhikudi, ornaments from Thirukkandiyur, flowers and garlands from Thirupanturuthi and ghee for the homa (yadnya)  from Thiruneithaanam.

Temple	Place	District	Lord Shiva’s name	Consort of Lord Shiva	Kshetra-vriksha
Aiyarappar  temple	Thiruvaiyaru	Thanjavur	Aiyarappan	Dharma-samvardini	Bilwa
Apathsahayar  Temple	Thiru-pazhanam	Thanjavur	Aapathsahayar	Periyanayaki	Bilwa (plantain) aka Kadalivana
Odhana-vaneswarar  Temple	Thiru-chotruthurai	Thanjavur	Odhanavaneswar	Annapoorni (Oppili amma)	Bilwa
Vedapuriswarar  Temple	Thiru-vedhikudi	Thanjavur	Vedapuriswara	Mangayarkarasi	Bilwa
Kandeeswarar  Temple	Thiru-kkandiyur	Thanjavur	Bramha-shirakandishwar	Mangalambika	Bilwa
Puvananathar  Temple	Thiru-panturuthi	Thanjavur	Pushpavaneswar	Soundarya-nayaki	Bilwa
Neyyadiappar  Temple	Thiru-neithaanam	Thanjavur	Neyyadiappar	Balambikai	Bilwa

To commemorate this event, a festival is conducted every year at Thiruvaiyaru during the Tamil month of Chithirai (Chitra which happens between mid-April to mid-May) on Vishakha nakshatra.

The utsav-moortis¹ of principal deities from these temples are brought in seven glass palanquins (palkhi) to Thiruvaiyaru. They are paraded there and a ritual known as Poochorithal (showering of flowers) is conducted. In this festival a doll offers the flowers to the principal deities in their palanquins. After this the palanquins leave for their respective temples. 

^{1. Temples in India maintain a separate smaller size idol to be taken outside of the sanctum sanctuary for various events and festivals. These are known as utsav moortis↩}

Pancha Sabhai Sthalangal

There are five places in Tamil Nadu where Lord Shiva is believed to have performed the Cosmic Dance. These 5 places are known as Pancha (5) Sabhai – Sthalams. Sabhai in Tamil means Stage and Sthalam means places. The Shiva temples in these places are more than 1000 years old and are believed to be at the same locations where these cosmic dances were performed.

Category	Temple	Location	Element	Shiva (name)	Name of consort	Kshetra-vriksha
Ratna-sabai (stage of the Jewel)	Vada aaranyeswarar Temple	Thiru-valangadu, Chennai	Emerald	Vadaranyeswar	Vandarkuzli	Jackfruit  tree
Por-chabai	Natarajar Temple	Chidambaram	Gold	Moolatandavar	Shiva-kamasundari	Thillai  (Geva Gangiva)
Velli-chabai	Meenakshi Amman Temple	Madurai	Silver	Sundareswar (Chokkanathar)	Meenakshi	Kadamba
Thamira-chabai	Nellaiappar Temple	Tirunelveli	Copper	Nellai appar	Kanthimati Amman	Bamboo (Vennivanam)
Chithira-chabai	Kutralanathar Temple	Thiru-kutralam	Art	Kutralanathar	Parashakti Kuzalvaimozi	Jackfruit  tree (Kurumpala)

Besides these there are a number of Tandava Nritya attributed to Lord Shiva at various places. All these are the foundational steps for Bharatanatyam. He performed Tandava at Mayil-adu-thurai at the request of Parvathi – this Tandava is known as Gauri-tandava. This Sabhai is known as Adi-sabhai. Besides this, some of the other Tandavas are Lakshmi Tandava, Kaali Tandava, Sandhya Tandava, Tripura Tandava, Ananda Tandava and Muni Tandava. 

Ashta Veerattanam Sthalangal

There are 8 Shiva temples in Tanjavur district of Tamil Nadu along the banks of river Kaveri. These temples were built about more than 1000 years ago. In all these places, Lord Shiva has performed destruction and has shown exemplary valor. Here he took these actions to destroy Asuras and evil forces. These temples were built to commemorate the triumph of victory over evil i.e. to remove the negative features like ego, ignorance, lust and fear of death, etc. In one place, Lord Shiva cut one of Lord Brahma’s head and gave him life again (Brahma is a Brahmin and also responsible for creation – hence it was appropriate that he was brought back to life by Shiva). 


These events indicate that evil or ego will not go un-punished. In all these temples, the special feature is that there exists various Shiva idols known as Samhara moortis.

Temple	Location	Name of Lord Shiva	Name of Goddess	Sthala Vruksha	Name of Special Moorthy	Importance of the place
Thiruvadigai Veerattaaneswara Temple	Thiruvadigai, Panruti	Veerattaneshwar	Periya-nayaki	Bahava (Sara Kondrai)	Tripurantaka Moorthy	Tripura samharak place
Tirukovilur Veerateshwarar Temple	Tirukovilur	Veeratteswarar	Shivananda-valli	Bahava (Sara Kondrai)	Gangala Moorthy	Andhakasura samharak place
Amirta-ghateswarar Temple	Thirukadaiyur	Amirta-ghateswarar	Abhirami Amman	Bilva, Pinjalam (Gulabi Chameli)	Kalasamhara moorthy	Markandeya was saved by Shiva by killing Yama
Vazhuvur Viratteswarar Temple	Vazhuvur, Mayiladuthurai	Krithivasar	Ilankilai-naayaki	Shami, Deodar (Indian teak wood), Kapurimadura (Jadi)	Gaja samhara moorthy	The rogue elephant created by sages at Darukh van was slain by Lord Shiva
Tirupariyalur	Keelaparasalur, Nagapattinam	Veerateshwar (Daksha-kurishwar)	Ilam Kobanayal – Balambika	Bilva, Jackfruit	Daksha samhara moorthy	Daksha samhara place
Thirukandeeswarar Temple	Thirukkandiyur	Brahma-sira- kandeeswarar	Mangala-nayaki	Bilva	Brahma-shiracheda moorthy, Hara Saabha Vimochana moorthy	Place where Brahma’s 5th head was cut by Lord Shiva
Thiruvirkudi	Thiruvirkudi, Tiruvarur	Veerataneshwar	Parimala nayaki	Tulasi	Jalandarasura samhara moorthy	Jalandarasura samhar place
Thirukkurakkai	Korukkai, Nagapattinam	Yogeshwarar	Gnanambika	Harada, Punniai (Alexandrian Lourel)	Kamadahan Moorthy	Kamadahan (Manmada) dahan place