Introduction
Thyagaraja Temple is a Shiva temple, located in the town of Thiruvarur in Tamil Nadu. In this temple, Lord Shiva is worshiped as Puttridankondeswarar, in the form of the Holy Shiva Lingam, and daily pujas are being performed to the lingam, and a separate shrine for Ma Parvathi is also present in this temple. The significance of this temple was praised in Tamil Holy Text Tevaram, which was written by the Nayanar saints, and they also sung few songs in praise of Lord Shiva at this temple.
This is a big temple, and apart from the main shrine, lot of shrines are also present in this temple, however, shrines for Thiyagarajar, Neelothbalambal and Kamalambigai are considered to be very popular.
The temple follows six daily rituals of worship and twelve yearly festivals are being celebrated. There is a huge chariot present in this temple, and annual Chariot festival is celebrated during the month of March.This temple was built by the Cholas during the 9th century, and later this temple was renovated by few Vijayanagar rulers during 15th Century AD.
Once Thiruvarur was ruled by a Chola king, whose name was Manu Needhi Cholan, and he has killed his own son in order to provide proper justice to a cow. Here all the nine Navagrahas (Nine Planets) are located in straight line and it is believed that all the Navagrahas had got relieved from their curse after they worshiped Lord Thyagaraja.
The Thyagarajar Temple at Tiruvarur is as famous as the Chidambaram Natarajar Temple. Mondays are considered as auspicious days for worshipping Lord Shiva, and during Mondays, we can see huge crowd of devotees who used to stand up in the queue waiting for their turn in order to witness the divine darshan of Lord Shiva.
Thiruvarur has become famous since it contains the famous Thyagaraja Temple, which is also considered to be one of the Mukti Stalams, and also classified as one of the Panchaboota Stalams. Sundarar, tells "I would like to become a slave to those who are born at Thiruvarur" in in Tevaram. Out of the 63 nayanmars, the two great Nayanamars, Kalarsinga Nayanar and Tandiyadigal Nayanar were born in Thiruvarur. The Tamil Holy Text Periyapuranam, also praises the significance of the Tiruvarar Thyagaraja Temple. Thiruvarur has attained high name and fame since famous saints and devotional singers like Thyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar and Shyama Shastri were lived in this sacred place. The Kumbhabhishekam of the temple was held on the year 2015. Recently I have visited this wonderful Shiva Temple, and due to that, I have attained great spiritual enlightenment.
“TIRUVARUR THYAGESANE NAMAHA”
Sent By
R.Harishankar
