Then Kailayam and Vada Kailayam, The Sub Shrines of Thiruvaiyaru Aiyarappar Temple, Thanjavur District, Tamil Nadu.

12^th June 2018

THEN KAILAYAM

This north (West) facing shrine was built by Panchavan Madevi, wife of Rajendra Chozha. In memory of the Victory over the Nulambas, a part of the Kannada region. After the victory, 46 numbers of lathe-turned & intricately carved pillars, made of soapstone to support the praharam, were brought from the Nulamba region. The story behind these 46 pillars goes like this…. Only 45 pillars were brought, and one was made by the Chozha sculptures within two days, without any difference between the original and the duplicate. (In my opinion, it may not be true since soap stones are not available in any part of the Tamil Nadu region, then how could it be possible? ). The temple was built with padabandha adhisthana and deva Koshtams supported by pilasters on both sides. Sri Subramaniar, Agnidevar, Shiva, and Durga are in koshtam, and Brahma is in a sitting posture. The koshta images are defaced. The shrine has only one inscription, which speaks about the donation given to this temple by a lady called Adhikarachi Muthana Pon Nangai, who worked under King Rajendra Chola.

As per the legend, Appar wants to have the darshan of Lord Shiva at Kailash. So he walked alone from Kasi after taking a bath in the Ganges. At one stage, he could not walk and crawled with blood bleeding from his hands and legs. On seeing Appar’s devotion, Lord Shiva created a pond at Mount Himalayas, asked him to take a dip, and promised to give darshan at Thiruvaiyaru. When he came out of the pond and had the darshan of Lord Shiva with his consort and Devaganas at the "Then Kailayam Temple".

LOCATION OF THE TEMPLE: CLICK HERE

  Brahma in a sitting posture in koshtam   

VADA KAILAYAM

This shrine was built by Sakthi Vidangi, also called Logamadevi, the wife of Rajaraja Chozha-I. Hence, the Lord Shiva of this temple is called Logamadeeswaramudaiar, and the temple is called Loga Mahadevi Eswaram. There are more than 10 inscriptions of the Rajaraja (with his full title) period, and one inscription belongs to Rajadhiraja-I, which speaks about the gifts made to the temple in terms of land, sheep, and gold ornaments, vessels for daily poojas, burning of perpetual lamps, and maintenance of this temple. In one of the inscriptions, Rajarajan’s wife is referred to as Nambiratiyar Danti Sakti Vidanki.

This shrine was built like a temple with Padma bandha adhisthana. The sanctum sanctorum consists of the Sanctum, antarala, arhamandapa, and mukha mandapa. Yazhi vari is shown above kumudam, and valapi is shown below kapotam. The kapotam has Nasis with motifs. The Bhitti / sanctum walls have the koshtas with pilasters on both sides and the Makara torana above. In the makara torana, cute miniature sculptures are carved. In between the koshtas, there are empty koshtas with Vishnu kantha, a pilaster. The koshta murtis Dakshinamurthy and Brahma are original and in defaced condition. A special miniature sculpture on one of the north side koshta is the kuda koothu, similar to the one at Thanjavur, Rajarajecharam, and Thiruvellarai. This represents that Thirumal danced Kuda koothu to save Aniruthan, the son of Kaman, from Asura Vaanan.  It is believed that Kuda koothu is the forerunner of Karakattam, a form of South Indian folk dance.

LOCATION OF THE TEMPLE: CLICK HERE

 The title of Rajaraja Chozha in the inscription 

Kuda koothu

---OM SHIVAYA NAMA---