kodiyidaiyamman sametha maasilamaneeswarar temple is in thirumullaivayil, a western outskirt of madras/chennai between ambathur and avadi. in old tamir text this place is known as vada-thirumullaivayil meaning northern thirumullaivayil to disambiguate from same named temple town near sirkari in thanjavur district.
legend says that this place exists from krutha yugam itself.
in krutha yugam it existed as rathnapuram , in thretha yugam as vilva vanam , in dwapara yugam as shenbaga vanam and in kaliyugam as mullai vanam.
this temple is built by king thondai man and the story about the name is as follows.
once there was a tribe known as kurumbars who lived around this region. they were headed by 2 heads onan and kaanthan. they were bandits and would loot and destroy places at will and secure other peoples belongings.
when they were done , they would go into their forts for hiding which were built strong so nobody was able to capture them.
their atrocities increased every day and the news reached thondai man , the ruling king. thondai man brought his army to fight the rogue bandits. unable to withstand the disciplined army , onan and kandhan retreated to their forts , performed a yagna to please their lord bhairava and with his blessings brought a demon to fight the king.
a surprised king got down the elephant and removed the creeper to see a shiva lingam cut at the top with blood coming out of it.
distressed with his own act, thondaiman took the knife to kill himself and thats when the lord gave him darshan and told him that he would never be decapitated and he is always pure and wholesome ( maasu illa mani in tamir ) and blessed him.
he told nandhi to go fight with the king. seeing nandhi , the demon and the 2 asuras surrendered to the king and thus he brought peace to the land. the nandhi is still seen facing east to mark the occasion.
thondaiman , to celebrate the victory brought 2 pillars made of erukkam plant and installed it on the artha mandapam of the lord. they can be still seen today.
the defeated onan and kandhan , later realized their sins and built a temple in kanchipuram and attained salvation. the temple is also sung in thevaram and is known as ona kandhan thali.
innumerous other people worshipped and attained salvation at this place. the list includes indran, indrani, iravatham , dhurvasa rishi , rama’s sons lava and kucha , sun , vasishtar , kamadhenu , chandran , ashwini devas , brugu muni , lord karthikeya and sundhara moorthy nayanmar.
sundharar came here first after he lost his eyesight at thiruvotriyur. he got one eye later in kanchipuram.
temple is a big one with the typical gajabrushta vimana as seen in other temples in this area. there is a separate sannidhi for ‘rishaba naayakar’ , the form the lord took to give darshan to thondaiman.
beautiful goddess kodiyidi amman forms a trio with vadivudai amman of thiruvotriyur and thiruvudai amman of meenjur and should be worshipped on the same day to get tremendous benefits , legend says.
this temple is featured in arunagiri nathar’s thiruppugar and also in ramalinga vallalar’s arutpa.
