Sundareswarar, Veppathur, Thanjavur

Basic information about the temple

Moolavar:	Sundareswarar	Ambal / Thayar:	Meenakshi
Deity:	Amman	Historical name:
Vriksham:	Vilvam	Teertham:	Eesan Kulam
Agamam:		Age (years):
Timing:	8 to 10 & 5 to 7	Parikaram:
Temple group:		–
Sung by:		Temple set:
Navagraham:		Nakshatram:
City / town:	Veppathur	District:	Thanjavur
Maps from (click):	Current location	Kumbakonam (10 km)	Mayiladuthurai (29 km)
	Tiruvarur (42 km)	Thanjavur (51 km)

Location

Sthala puranam and temple information

The temple’s Teertham – Eesan Kulam – is located immediately to the south of the temple, and is spread over an area of 9 acres. A few decades ago (early to middle 20^th century, nobody is able to confirm the years), a brahmin living in this village had a dream, in which Siva told him to dredge the Eesan Kulam at the place where he saw a strange light, and that doing so would yield various murtis including a Siva Lingam. Not knowing what to do, the person approached Kanchi Maha Periyavaa in Kanchipuram, who advised the person and others of this village to build a temple on the northern bank of Eesan Kulam. He also indicated that the villagers would find the murtis for this temple, in the waters of the Eesan Kulan.

The temple tank was dredged and indeed yielded two murtis – a Siva Lingam and the Amman. After a lot of struggle collecting funds, this temple was built, with shrines for just Siva and Amman, that had been found in the temple’s tank. Decades later, during another kumbhabhishekam, other parivara deities’ shrines were added, and most recently, the temple underwent another kumbhabhishekam in 2019.

All of the funds for the temple’s original consecration and subsequent kumbhabhishekams where raised by residents of the village, with liberal contributions by those in other parts of the world, who had roots in Veppathur.

In ancient times – possibly over 2000 years ago – Veppathur was considered a centre of knowledge and learning, and was referred to as Ghatika Sthanam, recognised for spiritual and philosophical education and culture. Perhaps because of this, during Chola times, this place was called Chola Marthanda Chaturvedi Mangalam. The Chola king of the time (unknown, but 10^th-12^th century) is also said to have given the adjoining village of Bhagavatapuram for use as residences, while continuing their academic pursuits at Veppathur, which attracted students and scholars from far and wide. For this reason, it is said that the place used to be called Vedamur, which over time has become Veppathur. According to another version, this place was called Nimmagramam in Sanskrit, which became Veppathur in Tamil. The place flourished as a learning centre during Pallava, Chola and even the period of the Vijayanagara dynasty.

There are no murtis in the koshtams of the garbhagriham. Instead, there are shrines for various parivara devatas in the prakaram, including Vinayakar, Murugan and his consorts Valli and Deivanai, Dakshinamurti, Chandikeswarar and Bhairavar. There is no Navagraham shrine here. There are various Nagar murtis under the sthala vriksham, the vilvam.