Kasi Viswanathar, Pillaiyampettai, Thanjavur

Basic information about the temple

Moolavar:	Kasi Viswanathar	Ambal / Thayar:	Visalakshi
Deity:	Siva	Historical name:
Vriksham:		Teertham:
Agamam:		Age (years):
Timing:	6 to 12 & 4 to 8	Parikaram:
Temple group:		–
Sung by:		Temple set:
Navagraham:		Nakshatram:
City / town:	Pillaiyampettai	District:	Thanjavur
Maps from (click):	Current location	Kumbakonam (6 km)	Mayiladuthurai (33 km)
	Tiruvarur (41 km)	Thanjavur (47 km)

Location

Sthala puranam and temple information

We request you to please read this short background about village temples, before you proceed.

This temple is such a pitiable state that it is heartbreaking to even look at pictures, let alone visit the temple. Fortunately, there is a priest who comes here at least once a day, and there was evidence of puja having been performed earlier in the morning, when we visited.

This temple is located just south of the Veeracholan river, very close to the point where that river starts off as a distributary of the Kaveri river. To the east, Tribhuvanam is located about 4 km away. This isolated location may well be the main reason this temple sees very few visits.

Very little, if any, information is available about this temple.

This temple is entirely made of brick – what used to be called man-thali in the days of yore. For this reason alone, this could have been a very early type of temple, dating back over 1200 years. There also seems to be a little bit of modernisation, inasmuch as the Vinayakar shrine in the prakaram is a newly built cement structure.

There is a small bali peetham and Nandi in front of the garbhagriham housing Kasi Viswanathar, and a separate south-facing shrine for Amman, which houses no murti – just a framed photograph. Other than some nagars lying around outside the garbhagriham walls, there are no murtis in the koshtam but for Durga. Even in the prakaram, the Vinayakar murti is a more modern plaster cast sculpture. The shrine for Chandikeswarar is as good as buried in the ground.

This temple is supposed to be for Kasi Viswanathar & Visalakshi, as well as Varadaraja Perumal. The temple is in such pitiable condition that it was hard to make out if the deity with two consorts was Murugan with Valli and Deivanai, or Perumal with Sridevi and Bhudevi.

Other Information for your visit

It will be extremely helpful if readers can either contribute to the temple in some meaningful way, or use their contacts to get the relevant authorities’ attention to this temple (as with several others).