marudeeshwar temple

As such Chennai is a place of temples, but four temple are here which are very ancient and Marudeeshwar temple is one of them. It is in Thiruvanimayur. When I asked the driver to take us to this place , he didnt understand and then I called somebody and asked him to explain, and realised it was me who pronounced it wrong,as here the n is silent and the area is called तिरुवामौर :). In all the languages pronunciation is more important then spellings and knowledge.

This is a huge temple and the main residing deity is Shiva, he is called the god of medicine and it is believed that whoever partakes the prasad distributed after abhishekam, is cured of any sickness he has. And abhishek is performed everyday at 8 am , 11 AM, and 8.30 PM. With swiftness they do the whole process ,its admirable, like at 8.30, there is abhishekam and they distribute prasad, then in a palanquin, they take lord shiva to his consort, then there is pooja, and then they take lord shiva and his consort to SHAYAN and there. and all this is performed within 25-30 minutes and everything is locked. Outside prasad of curd rice and pongal or tamarind rice is also distributed.The main "lingam" is described as Swayambu. He is also called "Palvannanathan" because Kamadhenu, the divine cow, used to shower him with milk constantly. The main deity is surrounded by many more small shivlings and god's statues.

Tripurasundari the consort of the presiding deity is housed in a separate mandapam in the temple complex. Numerous images adorn the pillars of the temple, while stucco figures grace the Gopurams or the entrance towers.

There are small mandapams for Ganpati & kartikeya.

The temple is spread in almost 1 Acre. One thing I appreciate in the temples in south is that here no eatable prasad is offered to god by devotees, instead after pooja, one can buy the prasad and partake it.