Velleeswarar Temple, Mylapore – The Temple
The
south facing temple has a five-tiered Raja Gopuram (tower). The stucco images
depicting the stories related to this temple such as rat worshiping Shiv Linga,
Vamana with Mahabali and others are found on the tower. Although the presiding
deity of the temple is Shiva, the shrine that faces the entrance has Ganesha.
There are people who claim that this temple had only Ganesh shrine in the
beginning and later it was extended to add the shrines of Shiva and others.
Selva Vinayakar is found seated; behind him Ganesh with his two consorts Siddhi
and Buddhi are found in the standing posture in this shrine. It is a rare
posture.
The
presiding deity Velleeswarar is found as a small Shiva Linga in the
east facing shrine. The images of Dwarapalas are found at the entrance of this
shrine. Nandi is found facing towards the direction of this shrine. The flag
staff, bali peetha and Nandi Mandapam are found in the outer corridor. Ganesha,
Dakshina Murti, Lingodhbava, Brahma and Durga are found as the Koshta (niche)
idols on the outer wall of the Velleeswarar shrine. Chandikeswara is found near
Brahma, as usual.
Mother
is called as Kamakshi. The Goddess Kamakshi is found in a separate
south facing shrine located at the right side of the sanctum. This idol is like
the Goddess Kamakshi temple at Kanchi. Idols of Saptamathrika's can be found in
the inner prakaram. Goddess Varahi is much venerated here. There was an Idol of
Lord Vishnu in Trivikrama posture behind Lord Shiva Shrine, and Devi Durga
(facing north).
The
prakara has so many sub-shrines and idols. The idols of Ganesh, Sekkizhar, Mei
Kanda Sivam and three other saints, Nalvar, Ulagalandha Perumal, Bhairava,
Surya, Veerabhadra, Lakshmi and Saraswathi are found. The sub-shrines of Sapta
Matas, Muthukumara Swami with Valli-Devasena, the Utsava Murtis of Muthukumara
Swami-Valli-Devasena, the big Utsava Murtis of Nataraja-Sivakami-Manickavasagar,
the Utsava Murtis of Somaskanda, Vishwanathar (small Linga) and Annamalai (big
Linga)-Unnamalai are all found in the prakara.
Navagraha
shrine is found in the outer region. Saneeswara is found in a separate
sub-shrine nearby. There is a small Shiva Linga named as Sukreshwara. Sukra is
found worshiping this Linga. The newly constructed Sarabeswara sub-shrine
flanked by the shrines of Prathyangira and Shoolini is a major attraction of
the temple in the recent times. Stucco image of Ekapatha Moorthy (one leg,
Shiva at the centre, Brahma and Vishnu on both sides above hip) can be seen in
the front mandapam near Kodimaram.
The
small bronze images of Vyagrapada and Patanjali are also located in
the sub-shrine of Nataraja. The sub-shrine of Muthukumara Swami has its own
flag staff. Even Kamakshi does not have a separate flag staff. There is
another bigger sub-shrine which has all the remaining bronze images such as
Ganesha, Murugan-Valli-Devasena, Nataraja-Sivakami, Uma-Chandrasekhar, Nalvar, Ulagalandha
Perumal and others. It is very rare to find an idol of Lord Brahma as Urchavar
in a temple. Most likely, this is the only temple where Lord Brahma is present
as a Urchavar (Idol form carried during processions). All the bronze idols of
the temple look very attractive.
