हिंदीOn this day
Standing

Tirumagaraleeswarar Temple, Tirumagaral

The Lord who appeared to a Chola king as a golden monitor lizard and vanished into an anthill; the linga is said to have the shape of the lizard’s tail. Sambandar sang his Vinai Theerkum padigam here.

Built: Chola foundation; present masonry largely 16th-century Vijayanagara–Nayaka; gajaprishta inner prakaram, five-tiered gopuram, two acresWhere: Tamil Nadu (Kanchipuram district, on the Cheyyar)Deity: Bhagwan Shiva as Tirumagaraleeswarar (Udumbeesar, Adaikalam Katha Nathar); Devi as Tribhuvana Nayaki12.72° N, 79.75° E
Photo: Ssriram mt · CC BY-SA 4.0

01The golden udumbu

Udumbu is the monitor lizard. The temple’s katha says a golden udumbu ran before a Chola king out hunting and slipped into an anthill, and when the king dug he found the linga; so the Lord is Udumbeesar and Puttridankondar, the one who made his home in an anthill. The rajagopuram carries the story in carved panels, and the inner prakaram is built in the curve of an elephant’s back. Bhairava here is in Ardhanari form, and Murugan rides a white elephant. Sambandar’s padigam is sung by devotees to remove the weight of past karma.

Visiting

About 16 km from Kanchipuram on the Uthiramerur road, on the north bank of the Cheyyar.

Nearby

Valeeswarar Temple, KuranganilmuttamStanding
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Valeeswarar Temple, Kuranganilmuttam

The village name holds three worshippers: kurangu, the monkey Vali; anil, the squirrel Indra; muttam, the crow Yama. Sambandar sang the shrine.

UttaramerurStanding
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Uttaramerur

A village of Vedic scholars where inscriptions of the Chola king Parantaka I, cut in 919 and 921 CE, set out in detail how the village assembly was to be chosen by lot from qualified candidates. They are among the oldest written rules for local self-government anywhere.

Varadharaja Perumal Temple, KanchipuramStanding
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Varadharaja Perumal Temple, Kanchipuram

The Divya Desam on Hastigiri where Brahma’s yajna brought Vishnu forth as Varada. Its old wooden image, Athi Varadar, lies under the temple tank and rises for darshan once in forty years.

Adikesava Perumal (Ashtabhuja) Temple, Ashtabhujakaram, KanchipuramStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Adikesava Perumal (Ashtabhuja) Temple, Ashtabhujakaram, Kanchipuram

The eight-armed Lord of Vishnu Kanchi, who took eight weapons to protect Brahma’s yajna from the serpent Saraswati sent against it. Pey Alvar and Thirumangai Alvar sing of him, and Vedanta Desika wrote his Ashtabhujashtakam here.