Thiruvotriyur is a well known northern suburb of madras with huge connectivity. here lies the famous vadivudaiyamman sametha thyagaraja swamy shiva temple. vadivudai amman is even more famous. many city buses ply to thiruvotriyur and it also has a metro train station.
thiruvotriyur is where the famous saint pattinathar attained mukthi.
it is probably the biggest temple complex in madras metropolitan area with a lot of sannidhis and beautiful sculptures. you can get a feel of the layout in the photo gallery.
thyagaraja name sake
this story originally belongs to thiruvarur. thyagaraja is the dance form of shiva which is worshipped by vishnu himself on his snake bed everyday. indran requests that from vishnu and got it.
once when indra was fighting the asuras , he approached muchukundha of thiruvarur for help. the king also supported him and won the battle for him. pleased with that , indra told him that he can have anything he wants. muchukundha asked for the thyagaraja.
perturbed by the ask, indran consulted his advisors. they suggested he make 6 more of those idols and present to the king so he would choose one. the probability would be less that he would take the original.
when presented, muchukunda knowing the trickery played by indra who didnt want to give him the original right away , prayed to god in anxiety and requested to help him. shiva appeared as divine voice and told him to choose the one which has the senkazhuneer flower on it. he did and chose the original.
indra, worried asked for help again to shiva himself. shiva told him to come to thiruvotriyur to see the dance and blessed him.
moola lingam
when the great deluge happened , bramma and vishnu approached shiva and asked him how to go about creation. shiva created a fire ball with which he dried the water. the fire ball churned out a lot of heat and from the heat glob came a lingam. it is the lord we see today. in tamir , the act of drying water with a cloth or other means is called ‘otri eduthal’. hence the sthalam came to be known as thiruvotriyur.
otriyur is known to get oneself rid of the fear of death.
kambar
the great tamir poet is said to have come here and worshipped the vattaparai amman. kambar would hear the ramayana verses in sanskrit from a pandit called sathuran and in the night he would write it. vattapparai amman is said to have held the light for him.
sundharar and sangili nachiyar
sundharar who sung thevaram had his second home in thiruvotriyur after thiruvarur.
before coming to thiruvotriyur he married paravai natchiyar in thiruvarur. after seeing sangili natchiyar , another beautiful woman who was living here , he wanted to marry her as well. so he told the lord to go on as a messenger to convey his wish. shiva went on sangili’s dream and told her what sundharar wanted. sangili said sundharar is married already to paravai and he will have to separate if we wishes to go back to her. hearing that shiva said , i will have him take an oath in front of me which he cannot break. he said the same to sundharar.
sundharar in return said, i cannot break my oath if i do it in your sannidhi. so i would you like to go to the magizham tree and hide behind it at the time of wedding. shiva as playful as ever said that to sangili as well.
at the time of marriage , sundharar took sangili to the sannidhi of shiva. she told him , human beings like us should not promise in front of the god and lets do it in front of the magizham tree. sundharar fell in the trap he laid and came around the tree 3 times and promised sangili that he will never leave her.
this is celebrated each year as magiradi vizha , meaning the function by the magiram tree.
interestingly when sundharar eventually started for thiruvarur after a while breaking his oath , he lost eyesight in both eyes. he got his left vision in kancheepuram and right vision in thiruvarur.
pattinathar mukthi
pattinathar , a very wealthy businessman turned saint attained jeeva samathi in thiruvotriyur. this is where a type of sugarcane called devils cane tasted sweet. it indicated that this is the place to be. he asked the kids in the beach to bury him in sand playfully. they did it twice and he came out. on the third time , he didnt and when the kids dug out , they could see a shiva lingam.
pattinathar samadhi is near thiruvotriyur beach.
pattinaththar found all grains of sand in the place as shiva lingam.
vadivudai amman
another great tamir saint vallalar worshipped vadivudai amman for 23 years walking many miles every day from a place called vallalar nagar ( known as mint today ). he would then go to his elder brothers home and eat there. one day his brother’s wife slept locking the door from inside. vallalar not wanting to disturb , slept outside tired.
vadivudai amman fed him food in the form of his brothers wife. vallalar has written songs praising the amman. vadivudai amman forms a trio with kodiyidai amman of thirumullaivayil and thiruvudaiyamman of minjur .
other details
one of the 63 nayanmars kaliya nayanar was born in thiruvotriyur and attained mukthi here.
all 27 nakshatrams came to thiruvotriyur and attained mukthi. they are in the left outer prakaram in the form of lingams
temple is in a very crowded area so its open all days from 6 to 12 noon and from 4 to 9 pm. phone 044 2573 3703.
sung by all 3 saints that sung thevaram.