THIRUVOTRIYUR

               Yesterday 9/5/2015 I visited two temples in Thiruvotriyur a suburb of Madras in the north.  The first one was the Vadivudaiyamman TemplE which was recently renovated and Kumbhabhishekam was done 2 months ago.  Thie is a 8th century  temple dedicated to Thiagaraja swami built by the Pallavas .  Over a period of 1200 years the temple has been renovated added by the Cholas, Pandiya and Vijayanagar rulers. The temple has a rich source of inscriptions all around in the walls both in Tamil and Telugu which tells the life and times of those periods and the various donations made to the temple by the kings. The Moolavar is Adhipureeshwarar and the consort is Vadivudaimman who is veneratd by the devotees.  There are 27 lingas representing the 27 stars around the prakara. There are separate temples for Ganesha, Muruga, Annamalai.  There is also a separate shrine for Thiruvotreeswarar in linga form. The main deity Adhipureeswarar is a swayambu linga of earth covered with kavacham opened only in the month of Karthigai full moon. There is a small shrine in the north side of main deity for Vattaparai Amman.  The temple is a padal petra sthalam and Sundarar had stayed here and sang in praise of God.  Adi shankara visited the temple in 8th century   and stopped the animal sacrifice in the Bali peeda.  Pattinathar also visited the temple many times in 9th century stayed here and attained samadhi here.  Kambar had visited the temple in 12 the century and Arunagirinathar in 15th century.  The grate carnatic composer Saint Thiagaraja visited the temple in 19th century and composed Thiruvotriyur  Pancharatnam..  Vallalar Ramalinga Adigal used to visit the temple from his home in George town daily continuosly for 23 years from 1835 to 1858. One day Vadivudaimman came in his dream and gave him food.  Pamban swamigal also visited the temple in 1850.  Maraimalai Adigalar was cured of his long Stomach paid in 1898 after visiting the temple,  I took great satisfaction in having visited such an illustrious temple and prayed for the welfare of all