The Miracle God Tiruchendur

      Śrī Subramanya Swami   Tiruchendur

Miracle Lord Muruga,  2,000 years old shore temple.  The temple saved Tiruchendur from Tsunami December 2004.

One among the six houses of  Lord Muruga, the shore temple of Arulmigu Subramanya Swami at Tiruchendur has a unique significance .The lofty tower of about 140 feet, it has a holy past   back to 2,000 years,   References are available   Purananūru, Silappadikāram, Tirumurugatrupadai, Adi Sankarar Śrī Subramanya Bhujangam, Kanda Purānam, Tiruppukazh, Tiruchendur Pillai Tamil, etc.

As one of the foremost spiritual centers, the temple has been an attraction for Hindus for ages. In the Tirumurugatrupadai, a classic of the third century AD, six chosen spots in The Tamil soil were referred to by Nakkīrar as of more than ordinary sanctity for the worship of Lord Muruga, among which Tiruchendur is number two. This was the only temple of Lord Muruga located on the seashore. His shrines are always situated amid mountains and forests, for these regions are considered dear to Lord Murugan. The variance here is possibly due to Muruga's divine mission to free the devas, and the vanquishing of evil in the form of Surapadma and his mighty hosts in Vīra Mahendram, their mid-ocean fortress. 

The Tamils have ever sincebeen celebrating the event as an annual festival during Skanda Shasti

 

 At this spot, Lord Muruga was said to have encamped before and after vanquishing the asuras and worshipped Siva at the shrine Mayan had built for him. The Kanda Madana Parvata, the red sandstone rock of this coast received its foundations. A lofty gopuram also rose beside it. A part of the cliff was bored into to form the holy sanctum of Subramaniam. The red sandy rock round about was further carved into, and the rolling hills of sand moved away to gain more space. The second and third praharas were then designed and brought into being. The Pandya and the Chera, their vassals, improved the temple. Maharaja Marthandavarma of Travancore Samasthanam endowed the very first Udaya Marthanda Kattalai of each morning and others followed in the nine aradhanas of the day.

The temple and its gopurams of nine floors are a landmark visible at sea for twelve miles.

Lord Muruga's association with Tiruchendur is significant. Tiruchendur, a sacred and prosperous town of victory, was also known as Tirucen-Centilūr in the Tamil classics. The Vasanta Mandapam is a recent noble edifice standing on 120 columns and with a central porch. The Ananda Vilas Mandapam stands on a raised sandy promontory majestically overlooking the sea. It is a mandapam of 16 pillars worked in black granite. The Shanmukha Vilasam, a magnificent mandapam of intricate stone plinths and columns, is the frontal adjunct to the main temple. It houses an ornate mandapam of four pillars in the centre, and this touches the ceiling through its elaborately carved and majestic pillars and supports the entire Shanmukha Vilasam.

The main entrance of this temple opens into the first temple prahara known as Sivili Mandapam. It is a series of four long corridors running round the inner second prahara flanked on either side by familiar rows of columns of yalis. The Sivili Mandapam produces a fine effect of symmetry and randeur. There is a Vishnu shrine of Lord Venkatesa on the northern prahara. Shrines to Vishnu within ancient Saivite temples are common in South India as in Chidambaram, Rameswaram, Perur, Tiruchengode, Sikkil, etc. This Vishnu shrine is hollowed out of the rock itself.

The principal sanctum of this great temple is Subramaniam, the Lord of Senthil. The figure is seen in a standing posture. The principal sanctum has all the full complement of mandapas. The temple Mela Gopuram, a massive structure of nine storey’s, is a striking landmark. The stupas at the top are nine in number in consonance with the number of storeys as a general rule with such temples. This gopuram is said to have been constructed 350 years ago by Desikamoorthy Swami of the Tiruvaduthurai Math. It is remarkable that from the sixth storey upwards to the ninth, the plaster on the walls is preserved and is beautified with fresco paintings.

 

There are four lithic inscriptions of the Pandya times collected together and planted in a line. Two of them belong to Pandya Varaguna Maran of about 875 AD, the third of Pandya Mara Varman of about 1282 AD and the fourth of Vikrama Pandya Deva. The inscriptions of Varaguna speak of his grant of 1,400 gold coins to the temple. There is a mention of a shrine to Nakkira Deva, which speaks highly of the literary advancement of the period.

A little removed from the main shrine and on the northern seashore under a cliff of overhanging hardened sandstone there is a picturesque cave carved out of it, which is famous as Valli's Cave. Two images are installed there, one dedicated to Valli and another to Dattatreya. The king of a clan of hunters and his men had followed the flight of Valli with Muruga, and here they were confronted by the divine consorts who showered their grace upon the pursuers. The frontal shrine has been embellished by a stone mandapam, the walls of which have paintings of Nambi Rajan.

Almost embedded in a rolling high sand dune on the beach lies a remarkable spring known as Skanda Pushparani -- the Nazhik Kinaru. It is a natural phenomenon and is said to have sprung up as Lord Shanmukha planted His lance -- the Vel -- on the spot.

There is a remarkable spring of fresh crystal water in a stone receptacle known as Nazhik Kinaru. It is a foot square and inset with the larger well. Another water source is one of saltish and highly sulfurous smelling and muddy-looking water. This swells up during the day and is pumped out daily so as not to allow it to overflow into the smaller one. A bath in the sea and in this well is considered to be of much spiritual merit.

The utsavar idols of Lord Muruga, with consorts worshipped by Kattabomman are kept at the first prahara in the northern side, which is characteristic of temple iconography of the 19th century. It is said that Kattabomman used to hear the bell sound after the puja was over at the temple by way of a chain of mandapams built along a distance of about 50 miles to his royal seat at Panchalankurichi