Basic information about the temple

Moolavar:	Tiruvareeswarar	Ambal / Thayar:	Tiruvateswari
Deity:	Siva	Historical name:
Vriksham:		Teertham:
Agamam:		Age (years):
Timing:	7 to 11 & 4 to 7	Parikaram:
Temple group:		–
Sung by:		Temple set:
Navagraham:		Nakshatram:
City / town:	Kalpakkam	District:	Chengalpattu
Maps from (click):	Current location	Kanchipuram (76 km)	Chennai (78 km)
	Tiruvallur (92 km)	Cuddalore (120 km)

Location

Sthala puranam and temple information

Located in Sadras (Sadurangapattinam) near Kalpakkam, this ancient temple is often missed even though many people visit the Malai Mandala Perumal temple nearby.

The etymology of Sadras is quite interesting. Sadras is a corruption by the Danish (who occupied this place, and there is a Danish fort nearby as well), of Sadurangapattinam, which itself derives from Sadira Vasaga Pattinam, after Sadra Vasagan, one of the names of Perumal at the nearby Malai Mandala Perumal temple. Sadras was the site of the first battle in India, between the British and the Dutch.

Several aspects of the temple are of relatively recent provenance – for instance, a mandapam on the northeast portion is from the time of the Vijayanagara Dynasty, while many other aspects are from the Nayak period. However, quite interestingly, there are several images of fish (in twos or even larger groups) depicted at various places on the walls. This leads one to infer that this may be a Pandya period temple. However, there is no other indication of Pandya influence here, so this might simply be part of the architecture, or it could be that stones from another Pandya construction in the region were brought here (unlikely). The temple Sivacharyar, however, said that it was indeed a Pandya temple.

The temple is built according to agamic rules, though it does not have a raja gopuram (there is a flat, mottai-gopuram instead). Also, there is a separate entrance to the maha mandapam from the south, with its own bali peetham, which leads straight to the Amman shrine. The temple also has a small but well-curated and maintained perimeter garden on the inside of the outer prakaram.

We were unable to gather details of the sthala puranam of this place, since the Sivacharyar was busy with the preparations for morning puja.

Other information for your visit

The temple is located very close to the northern gate of the Department of Atomic Energy, Kalpakkam.

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