Rudrapatheeswarar, Velangudi, Sivaganga

Basic information about the temple

Moolavar:	Rudrapatheeswarar	Ambal / Thayar:	–
Deity:	Siva	Historical name:
Vriksham:		Teertham:
Agamam:		Age (years):
Timing:	to & to	Parikaram:
Temple group:		–
Sung by:		Temple set:
Navagraham:		Nakshatram:
City / town:	Velangudi	District:	Sivaganga
Maps from (click):	Current location	Karaikudi (31 km)	Pudukkottai (36 km)
	Madurai (77 km)	Tiruchirappalli (82 km)

Location

Sthala puranam and temple information

There are a few different places named Velangudi, both in the Chettinadu region as well as elsewhere in Tamil Nadu (including one very close to Karaikudi).

This temple is virtually derelict, except for the superstructure which has the garbhagriham and antarala, which appears to be from the late Pandya / early Chola period, possibly from the 8^th century (this is my “educated guess”, I could be off the mark here!). That said, the architecture of the garbhagriham is excellent.

Naturally, there is no known sthala puranam for this temple. Things are so bad, that even the name of Amman here is not known by the locals.

Clearly the temple has gone to seed, with the garbhagriham remaining empty – as it has apparently been for several decades now. Even some of the key elements of the temple structure, such as the dhwajasthambam, bali peetham, some pillars, etc, have been broken or damaged, and are seen lying about around the garbhagriham structure that remains today.

There are some inscriptions on the outer wall of the garbhagriham, but again, it is not known if these have been read and deciphered by anyone. There is a sacred fig tree (arasa maram) under which are two Vinayakar murtis, which continue to be worshipped even today.

Thankfully, the locals have saved the murtis of some of the deities, which are kept in a tin shed adjacent to the temple. This includes a Siva Lingam, three Nandi murtis, Amman, Murugan, Chandikeswarar, several Vinayakar murtis, Nagar,