Sunday, December 18, 2011

Navagraha temples in chennai near Porur- Mangadu Velleshwarar koil- Sukran (Venus) sthalam


Today enroute to Kanchipuram I made a brief stop over  at Mangaadu and had a darshan of this very ancient temple.
How to Reach:
Enter Mangadu and take a turn towards the Kamakshi temple when you are directed to the parking lot proceed straight to the end of the road and take a right turn at the end.Follow this road for a furlong and you will land in front of the temple.This temple is behind the kamakshi temple
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Legend associated with the temple:
Kamakshi was directed by shiva to be born on earth and to do penence to marry him as she had once playfully closed his eyes and caused total darkness to the whole universe.When she came here she  found Sukracharya the guru of the asuras already doing penence here for atoning his sin in preventing Bali chakravarthy from donating three feet of land to Maha vishnu in the Vamana avatara. Since shiva could not move from here he directed parvathy to wait for him in Kanchi where he marries her.Velli is another name for Sukra hence the name velleshwarar,
Vinayaka in this temple is called Mangani vinayaka ( mango shoot) as he has a mango in his right hand and  paddy in his left hand. (The name Mangadu means mango groove) This is the mango he won from narada the Gnanapazham(fruit of knowledge)
The temple:
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As you enter from the east you see   nandi with a cage in front which encloses the paadam (feet) of Kamakshi who came here and left for her temple( you can see the cage on the right in the pic below)
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Entrance to the temple is from the south .There are no dwara palakas .The sanctum has a huge Sivalinga mounted on a stage here Chatura peeta unlike the usual aavudiar .There is no seperate  sannidhi for parvathy here as Kamakshi temple is nearby..
Outside the main prahara you see shrines for Vinayaga, murugan, Kasi viswanathan , Visalakshi and Veerabhadrar .
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Veerabhadra  was created from siva’s sweat in anger at Daksha’s yagna and Veerabhadra beheads Daksha. who is later fixed with  a sheeps head and you can see a sheep headed daksha kneeling before the Veerabhadrar (see below)
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( veerabhadra sannidhi)
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Murugan sannidhi
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(lingothbavar with Brahma and Vishnu on either side )
Goddess Durga is also  installed with her discus near Lingodbhava. Durga with a Prayoga Chakra (discus) This is  the speciality in the temple.
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Maangani vinayakar and guru
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(The vimanam)
There  is also a sannidhi for Kala Samhara murthy and  balambigai near the durga and chandishwarar sannidhi
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well maintained garden
A visit to the temple is said to propitiate Venus (shukran) and also help ameliorate eye conditions

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