Vellimalai Nathar, Tiruthengur, Tiruvarur

Basic information about the temple

Moolavar:	Vellimalai Nathar	Ambal / Thayar:	Brihannayaki
Deity:	Siva	Historical name:	Tirutthengur
Vriksham:	Thennai	Teertham:	Sivagangai
Agamam:		Age (years):
Timing:	8 to 11 & 6 to 7	Parikaram:
Temple group:	Paadal Petra Sthalam (Kaveri Then Karai)	–
Sung by:	Sambandar	Temple set:
Navagraham:		Nakshatram:
City / town:	Tiruthengur	District:	Tiruvarur
Maps from (click):	Current location	Tiruvarur (17 km)	Nagapattinam (34 km)
	Kumbakonam (53 km)	Mayiladuthurai (61 km)

Location

Tiruthengur is located 18km from Tiruvarur and 22 km from Mannargudi.

Sthala puranam and temple information

This temple is connected with Dasavataram.

During the Vamana avataram, Sukracharya (Sukran) was blinded in one eye, and was living in hiding. To get back his sight, Sukran came here and worshipped Lord Siva. The Lord, together with Parvati, gave him pratyaksham here and helped him get rid of his curse.

As thanksgiving, Sukran and the other 8 Navagrahams each installed a Lingam here, in their own name. Since Sukran is called Velli, the Lord here is called Vellimalainathar (in Sanskrit, this translates to Rajata Gireeswarar).

Worshipping the nine Lingams consecrated by the Navagrahams is said to provide relief from all sorts of doshams. When Brahma visited here, he was pleased with the Lingams created by the Navagrahams, and so he named the place Navagrahapuram.

River Ganga is where people bathe in, to wash off her sins, and this resulted in Ganga herself accumulating others’ sins. So She came here to get relief from those sins. She established a tank and grew red lotuses in it, which she used to worship Siva and Parvati here. The Lord blessed her to stay here forever, and that the temple tank here would be considered the equivalent of the river Ganga. The Teertham is called Sivagangai Teertham.

During pralayam, Parvati asked Siva to save this place from destruction, as many of their devotees were here. The Lord obliged, and so even though the rest of the world was under water, this place remained dry, with a tank of clean water as the Teertham. So the place gets the name Thengur (in Tamil, thengal or thaengal means to remain or stagnate). Hearing of this incident, Lakshmi came here to worship Siva, so this place is called Tiru Thengur (Tiru refers to Lakshmi).

The Navagrahams are represented twice at this temple – one as the Navagrahams themselves, and the other was the nine Lingams consecrated by each of the Navagrahams.

This is a very old temple, though the second prakaram (ie outside the garbhagriham) has a lot of classic Chola sculpture and architectural work.