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Cheyyur Kandaswamy Temple – An unique temple with 27 Birth Star Vedalams
Cheyyur Kandaswamy temple is one of the Least Known temples of Tamilnadu. Cheyyur is a place that is located off the East Coast Road about 80 km from Chennai and the main deity of this temple is Lord Muruga who is worshiped as Kandaswamy.
As per Hindu Mythology, it is believed that Lord Muruga got the Divine spear (Vel) from Goddess Parvathi in Sikkal Singaravelan Temple. He killed the demon Sooran (Soorasamharam) in Tiruchendur. During this war against the Demon Sooran, the Boodaganas (Lord Shiva’s Army) is also believed to have helped Murugan. Since Lord Muruga killed Sooran and his son Iranyan, he got Dosha. In order to get rid of his Dosha, Lord Muruga started worshipping his father Lord Shiva. He did this by installing the image of Lord Shiva as Somanatha. Since Lord Shiva was worshiped by His Son (Sei in Tamil), the place is called Cheyyur.
The Kandaswamy temple is an ancient temple that was built during Chola period and it has no Gopuram at the entrance. The temple faces the South and the main deity faces the East. The main Lord of the temple is Sri Kandaswamy with his wives Valli and Devayanai. The main shrine of Sri Kandaswamy is flanked by two Dwarapalakas namely Suveeran and Sujanan.
On entering the temple, one can first see the separate shrine for Lord Vinayaka. Then to the left, one can find the shrines of Sri Somanathar and Goddess Sri Meenakshi Amman. The unique feature of this temple is that the shrines of Brahma and Vishnu flank either side of the Lord Shiva’s shrine. This is an unusual feature in any Murugan Temple.
Usually, in any of the Shaivite temple, we can see Lord Vinayaka, Dakshinamoorthy, Lingothbavar (Vishnu), Brahma and Durga. But in this temple, these deities are replaced by 5 different forms of Lord Muruga Himself. Lord Vinayaka is replaced by Nritta Skanda (Dancing Muruga). Brahma Sastha (the one created from Brahma) replaces Lord Brahma. Lord Vishnu is replaced by Bala Skanda (Child Shanmuga). ShivaGuru Nathar (one who teaches Shiva) replaces Dakshinamoorthy and Pulindhar (Lord Muruga in the form of a hunter) replaces Goddess Durga.
Other than these, we have the shrines of Chandikeshwara and the Bhairava in their usual positions. The planet Surya of this temple is called the Guha Surya. Apart from these many unique forms of Lord Muruga, we also have a separate deity for Sri Arumugaswamy (Lord Muruga with His Six faces) facing the South.
Apart from all these uniqueness, this temple has another special feature that cannot be found in any other temple in the World. There are 27 Vedalams (Bethals) on the inner side of the compound wall of the temple. (I know that you will get reminded of the Vedalams in the Vikramadityan’s Story 🙂 ). These 27 Vedalams are found with their hands lifted up representing the 27 Birth Stars or Nakshatras worshipping Lord Muruga. These 27 Vedalams that are found here are believed to be the 27 Boodaganas who helped Lord Muruga in fighting the Demon Soorapadman.
These 27 Vedalams obey the instructions of Lord Bhairava and so you can see the separate deity of Bhairava alongside the Vedalams. The day of Ashtami, that falls after the Full Moon is called ‘Theipirai Ashtami’. This day is considered to be more auspicious for Bhairava. On this day, the devotees worship the Vedalam that represents their Birth star. On the day of Theipirai Ashtami, the Vedala pooja usually starts with Vinayaka Sankalpa, followed by special Archanai for the Vedalams with Red Arali (Nerium) flower. Then it will be followed by Abishekam and Special Archanai for Bhairava with 8 different types of flowers.
It is strongly believed that by worshipping the Lord Bhairava and the Vedalams on Theipirai Ashtami day, the wishes will be conveyed by Lord Bhairava to Lord Kandaswamy and so their wishes will be fulfilled by the Lord Muruga.
The temple in Cheyyur is around 27 km from Maduranthakam and can be reached easily from Chennai through any mode of transport such as Taxis and local buses. If you are traveling by train, the nearest station is Chengalpattu from where we can reach the temple through road.
