Maragadhambika Samedha Murugeshwarar temple in Thaiyur is
tucked deep inside a tiny village that it is bound to miss our attention.
A temple with Shiva & Shakti in the form of Meenakshi
& Chokkanatha of Madurai. They are called Murugeshwara & Maragadhamba at this temple.
Very similar to the tradition in Madurai we get to see a form of Sakthi in the
main sanctorum itself (Priyavidai… meaning one who will always be with the
Lord).
A mid sized temple
but well maintained by the Priest in charge and the temple management ably supported
by the people of the village.
First attraction in this temple is the Vinayaka Idol who is said to have been atleast two millennia
old. He is called “ Urumetru Ganapathy”. He does not have the normal looks of
a Vinayaka of this generation or of
South India. He does not have the ponch and is in the war attire, with weapon in one hand and
Raddish (vegetable ?) in another.
Apparently a reference of him is found in a museum in Japan. There are also Tamil Brahmi inscriptions at
the foot of the Vinayaka Idol.
Lord Murugha is in two forms at this temple, one as
Thiruporur Murughan (Swayambhu and with striking resemblance to Thiruporur
Murughan whose Idol does not have clear features as Nose and eyes in view of
that not being chiselled) and one as
Shanmukha (Installed by Vijayanagara kings).
As said in Skanda Purana, Gajamukhasura Samhara (killing)
was at Thiruporur. Lord at THiruporur visits Thaiyur Shiva temple, performs
puja to Shiva Linga (as in Thiruchendur) and takes blessings from Shakthi prior
to Gajamukhasura Samharam. Lord at this
temple gets the name Murugeshwara in view of this event.
A temple pond is now being restored and is likely to be in
good shape in the coming months. Other than festive occasions, foot fall is
between negligible and nil at this temple and that is all the more reason why
people should be visiting this temple more often.
Being an unpolluted village, I had the blessing of sighting atleast five hundred cows sitting on the road to the
temple. I have not seen such a big flock in my life, all in one location.
A nice video of this temple is available at :
Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2GzLE36hg4
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