Sunday, January 01, 2006

Weekend Darshan - 7

For the new year, I wanted to go as far away from the crowds in the temples of Chennai and Nanganallur in particular. So we headed towards Tiruneermalai and from there on went to Manimangalam.

Tiruneermalai is near Pallavaram. This place is one among 108 divya desams. There are two temples, one on top of a small hill and the other at the foot of it. One special aspect of this temple is that the Lord can be seen in four different positions vis Nindra, Irundha, Kidandha and Nadantha Tirukkolams. More info abt the temple here


Neervannar2 aerial_view
Neervanna Perumal temple and its aerial view from the hill

From there we went to Manimangalam. It is about 10kms from Tambaram. To reach here take the right from NH 45 near Vandalur. After travelling for some 4-5kms there is a right which takes to Manimangalam.

This place has got lots of historic importance. The temples here depict Pallava and Chola architecture. More about Manimangalam's history here.

We could find three temples here which date back to 950AD. One is dedicated to Lord Shiva. Narayanan sir once told me that there is a secret underground passage in this temple that goes to Somangalam, a nearby place. Not sure about that.

Manimangalam rgswamy_temple2
Rajagopala Swamy temple (main and side view)

There is a Vaikunta Perumal Temple which is in a dilapidated state. The pick of the three is the Raja Gopala Perumal temple, which is supposed to be built by Mamalla after his victory over Chalukyan monarch, Pulikesin II.

Mandapam
Mandapam for Urchavam

Notable feature in this temple is that the Chakra is held by the Lord at a perpendicular angle to symbolise the war. There are a few miniature staues along the side walls of the temple, which are beautifully and expressively carved. They are hardly 10-15cms high.


Dakshinamurthy Narasimhar
A beautiful small statue on the walls. Observe the Chakra being perpendicular in this Narasimhar sculpture

There is a beautiful garden around the temple blooming with roses. Altogether it was great to spend time in a serence ambience.

20 Comments:

Blogger srivat said...

Bala,
Nice post.Its second time i'm missing manimangalam.But the temple looks beautiful and old too.Is the gopuram in the picture the main gopuram.Looks like a different style to me than whatever we have seen in Kanchipuram.

9:48 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Srivatsa,
yes it is the main gopuram. it is in Chola style. but the temple interior has the traditional Pallava style small corridor for light and internal drainage.

Looks like more than one dynasty has built the temple. It is also possible that the gopuram alone was rebuilt some years back because of the damage.

Look at the link to some archealogical site that I have given. It has lots of information.

9:54 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Indha chinna vayasulaye neengalum srivatsanum ivlo bakthi mayama irukkaradha paatha manasu romba sandoshama irukku :-)

1:31 AM  
Blogger NS said...

happy new yr to u Balaji

1:45 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

ferrari,
romba bakthi-nu solla mudiyaadhu. aana naanga rendu perum "Ponniyin Selvan" padichadhula irundhu tamil history mela oru interest create aayiduchu.

adhaan indha madhiri koil ellam poyee andha sculptures ellam pathukittu irukkom

1:49 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

nithya,
wish u the same

1:49 AM  
Blogger Vishnu said...

ennapa puthu varusam eppidi irukku.....


Cheers!
:)

2:04 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

thanks vee-jay and wish u the same

3:17 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

great vishnu

3:18 AM  
Blogger Yadhvi said...

balaji,
I Agree that Ponniyin Selvan has a huge impact on the outlook...I just finished it, and am already suggesting my folks at home about the places we should visit..

Happy New Year to you!!

9:23 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

no lokesh,

this place is the one we visited after u recovered from your accident.

5:25 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

yadhvi,

kandippa poyittu vaanga.

thanks and wish u the same

5:26 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

nice way to start the new year

5:24 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

vasanthi,
indeed it was very nice

6:14 AM  
Blogger Narayanan Venkitu said...

Balaji,
Yeah, the Shiva temple has a cave that leads to Somangalam.

Infact..first, let me thank you for posting a link with Dr.Gift Siromoney's photo. He was my professor in B.SC and M.SC and the head of the dept of Stats..in MCC.

Thanks to him, I got interested in archeology and Indian History. I went to Manimangalam to collect ESTAMPAGES ( impressions of ancient scripts) and that is when I learnt about the cave etc.!!

Very nice of you to go to Thiruneermalai and Manimangalam.!!

You've written a few points here on Manimangalam Perumal temple which I never knew earlier.!!

Thanks Balaji.!

12:21 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Narayanan,
In this regard we should thank each other. If u had not told me abt that cave , I would have missed this marvel altogether

7:54 AM  
Blogger R. Balaji said...

Hi, you have great blog, I particularly liked the weekend darshans, very interesting.
Came here from Ravikumar's blog.

9:15 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

r.balaji
thanks mate

4:55 PM  
Blogger sowri said...

Nice post and very informative. Esp people like me who roam around and still missing few spectacular places like Manimangalam. I should have visited this page earlier. Thanks for your contribution

12:22 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

tirupati tirumala (perumal) balaji darshan / seva booking / accomodation / internet booking / current booking / advance booking, contact gunsnguys@gmail.com for more information and quick updates.

2:09 PM  

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