The visit to this Sri
Kalahastheeswarar Temple Coral
Merchant Street, Thiruvalluvar Nagar, George Town, was a part of the “Shiva and Amman Temples Visit”, in Park
Town and George Town areas, on 22nd March 2015. Many Shiva and Amman temples are spread in
these areas. Some of the temples are 500 years old and have a long history. Thanks
to the donors, who donated the land, properties, and money for constructing these
temples and ensuring continuous poojas.
During
my first visit & Uzhavaram to this temple, the temple was under renovation, so I could not take good
photos. The place was in a mesh due to construction activities. This temple is
squeezed between concrete buildings.
Moolavar
: Sri Kalahastheeswarar
Consort : Sri Prasunannambigai/ Sri Gnanaprasunnambigai.
Some of the salient features of this temple are...
The temple is facing east with an entrance arch. Dwajasthambam, balipeedam, and Rishabam are in front of the sanctum sanctorum. Stucco dwarapalakas
are in front of Sanctum sanctorum. Vinayagar and Murugan are at the entrance of
sanctum sanctorum. In koshtam Vinayagar, Dakshinamurthy, Mahavishnu, Brahma and
Durgai.
Ambal
is in a separate sannidhi facing east. Ambal is in standing posture with abhaya varada hastam.
In
praharam Suriyan, Chandran, Nalvar, Vinayagar, Chandikeswarar, Nagars, A Shiva lingam with Ambal, Valli
Devasena Subramaniar, Hanuman,
Ayyappan, Naga Devadas ( Pathanchali & Vyaghrapada ), Bairavar and
Navagrahas.
ARCHITECTURE
The
main temple consists of sanctum sanctorum and ardha mandapam. The temple was
reconstructed completely and the inscription tablet is missing now. From
adhistanam to prastaram built with stone. A two tier dravida Vimana is on the
sanctum sanctorum.
Stucco
images of Ambal, Kannappar puranam, Ekapada thirumurthy, Kalahasti
Kalahasteeswara Temple sthala puranam, Kanchipuram Ekambareswarar Sthala
puranam, Kalahasti Shiva Lingam are on the side walls of mandapam and praharam.
HISTORY AND INSCRIPTIONS
Happened
to see an inscription on the south side wall of sanctum Sanctorum, dated
21-1-1926 by Naga Siva Chidambaram Chettiar's son of Subbaraya Chettiar about
the donation of a house and a go-down given to the temple for conducting functions from the income after deducting, the taxes to be paid to Government and
maintenance charges. During my second visit, this inscription was not found.
Maha Kumbhabhishekam was conducted on
23rd January 1984, 08th July 2001, and 06th
July 2022.
LEGENDS
This Kalahastheeswaraar temple is one of the
Pancha Bootha sthalams of Chennai. Sri Kalahasti is the name derived from SRI = Spider, KALA = Serpent ( Snake), and
Hasti = Elephant. It is believed that all three worshiped Lord Shiva of
this temple and attained mukti. The story goes like this. The Spider weaved a
shade to avoid leaves falling on Lord Shiva. This was destroyed by wind with
fire and Lord Shiva gave Mukti to Spider. The snake used to worship Lord Shiva
by offering precious gems which it brought from its naga land. This was cleaned
and worshiped by the elephant with water which brought water through its
trunk from the river. On seeing this, the snake got angry and went inside the
trunk and killed the elephant through bite and injected its poison. The
elephant hit its head on the rock to kill the snake and died. Lord Shiva
gave mukti to both snake and elephant for their devotion and bhakti. Hence
Shri Shiva is called Sri Kalahastheeswarar.
It is believed that this temple is very much similar
to Kalahasti Sri Kalahastheeswarar temple and those who cannot go to Kalahasti,
can offer their prayers at this temple. Ambal is very powerful and a Varaprasadhi, granting child boon.
POOJAS
AND CELEBRATIONS
Apart from regular poojas special poojas are
conducted on Fridays, Panguni Uthiram, Pradosham, Maha Shivaratri, Navaratri,
Sankatahara Chaturthi, New Year days, etc,.
Navaratri 2002 Kozhu
TEMPLE
TIMINGS
The temple will be kept open between 07.00 hrs to
11.30 hrs and 17.00 hrs to 20.30 hrs.
CONTACT
DETAILS
HOW
TO REACH
The
temple is on 155/ 50 – Pavalakara Street ( Coral Merchant Street),
Chennai -1 Mannady area. The north end of the street.
On
town bus routes Ibrahim Sahib Road Gets down at Thambu
Chetty Street and Pavalakara Street is very near. ( 6D, 8B, 11 a, 38
A, G, H, S, 44, 56B, 57D, etc,. ).
The nearest railway station is Rayapuram / Royapuram and is 4.2 KM from Chennai Central.
The old Photographs of the temple before Renovation
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OM SHIVAYA NAMA ---
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