Friday, 17 April 2020

Chidambareswarar Temple and Silambeswarar Temple at Kavanthandalam, Kanchipuram District, Tamil Nadu.

15th March 2020.
The visit to this Chidambareswarar Temple and Silambeswarar Temples are part of Shiva, Vishnu, and Amman Temples Visit on the banks of river Cheyyar a tributary to river Palar, scheduled on 15th March 2020. On the way to Sri Silambeswarar Temple, we happen to cross this newly renovated Chidambareswarar Shiva temple. Initially, we thought this may be completely reconstructed as a new Temple, but we are told that this temple is more than 1000 years old. During Chozha period, this place was called as Jayankonda Chozha Mandalathu Ootrukottaththu Thammanur Nattu Kavanthandalamana Chaturvedi mangalam. 


Moolavar  : Sri Chidambareswarar
Consort    : Sri Maruvar Kuzhaliammai

Some of the salient features of this temple are...
The temple faces west with balipeedam and Nandhi. Vinayagar and Murugan are at the entrance of the main sanctum sanctorum. In prakaram sannadhi for Maruvar Kuzhali Ambal sannidhi facing South. There are no images in the koshtas.  There is no compound wall too.

HISTORY AND INSCRIPTIONS
It was said that this temple is more than 1000 years old and renovated completely. Kumbhabhishekam was conducted about a month back. Hope Shiva Linga, Nandhi, Durgai, Chandikeswarar, and Pranala are seems to be old. The Chandikeswarar is in the form of a relief.  As per the iconography of Durga, the original temple may belong to the 12th to 13th century.

Chandikeswara
 Durga

HOW TO REACH:
This temple is about 14 KM from Walajabad, 18 KM from Kanchipuram, 44 KM from Chengalpattu Junction, and 75 KM from Chennai.
Nearest Railway Station is Chengalpattu.

LOCATION OF THE TEMPLE: CLICK HERE





SILAMBESWARAR TEMPLE
This Silambeswarar temple was in the news about an idol of Indira or Murugan on an Elephant that was unearthed from a field at Kavanthandalam. We thought of exploring further on that. The temple structure is found in dilapidated condition. Trees were grown on the structures. There are three sannadhis inside the temple. The sannadhis are empty now and it was told that Perumal was shifted to Bhagwan Thirumalaisamy Temple which is about 500 meters from this temple.

Outside the Temple structure, there are two idols and one is a Chozha period Nandhi. The other one is the newly unearthed idol. Indra or Murugan sitting on Elephant. The Idol seems to be unfinished and partly damaged. Couldn’t identify who was on the elephant.

The temple was completely constructed with  bricks. The style of Vimana and the stucco images of this structure belong to an Amman or Ambal temple. But what happened to Shiva Temple and what are the two sannadhis before the main sanctum..?.  The archaeological excavation may throw some light on this. The Nandhi is the only proof that a Shiva Temple might have existed in this place.

LOCATION OF THE TEMPLE: CLICK HERE












---OM SHIVAYA NAMA---

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