01Chandesa’s village
Seignalur was the home of Vicharasarma, who became Chandesa at Tiruvappadi across the fields. Sekkizhar tells that when Sambandar came here he got down from his pearl palanquin and walked, out of reverence for the birthplace of Chandesa, and the seventh verse of his padigam on the shrine, in the first Tirumurai, recalls Chandesa’s story. The Chandesa image here has the crescent, the loose hair and the Ganga in his locks, the form Shiva gave him. The temple also ties the name to Murugan: sei is the child Murugan, and the Kanda Puranam places here his receiving of weapons from Shiva before his war on Surapadma. Murugan has a large shrine of his own. Periyavachan Pillai, the Shri Vaishnava commentator on the Divya Prabandham, was also born at Senganur.
02The raised temple
The temple is a maadakkoil, the raised form tradition ties to Kochengat Chola: the east-facing sanctum, ardha mandapa and maha mandapa stand on a high platform with one prakaram above and another round its base. The swayambhu linga of Satyagireeswarar is in the sanctum, while the Devi’s shrine is at ground level in the outer prakaram. Nataraja, Bhairava and the four great Nayanmars are in the maha mandapa, and the bronze Bhairava rings when tapped.
Near Tiruvappadi, west of Kumbakonam; take an auto from Kumbakonam or Tiruppanandal and see both shrines together.
