Aadi Vaidyanathar, Radhanallur, Nagapattinam

Basic information about the temple

Moolavar:	Aadi Vaidyanathar	Ambal / Thayar:	Thaiyal Nayaki
Deity:	Siva	Historical name:
Vriksham:	Vilvam	Teertham:
Agamam:		Age (years):	1000-2000
Timing:	9 to 11 & 5 to 7	Parikaram:
Temple group:		–
Sung by:		Temple set: Pancha Vaidyanatha sthalam
Navagraham:		Nakshatram:
City / town:	Radhanallur	District:	Nagapattinam
Maps from (click):	Current location	Mayiladuthurai (14 km)	Kumbakonam (42 km)
	Tiruvarur (57 km)	Nagapattinam (69 km)

Location

Sthala puranam and temple information

This temple is located on the road from Vaitheeswaran Koil to Pandanallur, after Manalmedu.

This is one of the five Pancha Vaidyanathar temples, which has its own story. One such puranam is that in the Mahabharatam, the five Pandavas suffered illnesses at the same time when they were in this part of the country during their exile. Each of them worshipped Siva as Vaidyanathar at a different temple in the vicinity, leading to the concept of the Pancha Vaidyanathar sthalams.

According to one sthala puranam, five leaves of the vilvam tree in Kailasam fell on Bhulokam, and Siva manifested in the form of a Lingam, as Vaidyanatha Swami, in these five places.

In a variation of the sthala puranam at nearby Aththur, Siva and Parvati manifested here with Murugan, and asked for water. Murugan immediately drove his spear (Vel) into the ground, and water sprouted out as a river, which later named Subrahmanya Nadi. In recent years, this river has come to be known as the Manniyaru river (today, it is a distributary of the Kaveri river).

Read a detailed article on the Pancha Vaidyanatha sthalams here.

The temple is said to have been built in the time of Rajendra Chola I, making this temple over a 1000 years old. Despite several renovations, various elements of the original Chola style of architecture remain.

This west-facing temple has no raja gopuram. Instead, a flat gopuram with a vavvaal-nethi type of covering welcomes us. The Vavvaal-nethi feature continues inside over a corridor that leads to the ardha mandapam. There is no dhwajasthambam, only a bali peetham followed by Nandi, both in the corridor. Outside the ardha mandapam is Vinayakar on the left. Inside are two dwarapalakas guarding the garbhagriham. To the left is the south-facing shrine for Amman. Being west-facing, the order of koshtam deities is reversed – Durga in the north and Dakshinamurti in the south.

Outside on the north-western side are shrines for Bhairavar, Murugan as Selva Muthu Kumara Swami flanked by his consorts Valli and Deivanai, and Mahalakshmi. As we come around the temple in pradakshinam, there is the sthala vriksham under which are two nagars, and some older vigrahams are kept. Chandikeswarar has a separate shrine nearby. On the northern side are the Navagraham shrine, a lone Saneeswarar, Chandran and Suryan, and Kasi Viswanathar. Finally on the west is Vinayakar.

As with all Siva temples for Vaidyanathar, devotees worship here for relief from illnesses – particularly skin diseases – and it is also a Sevvai dosham parikara sthalam.

In the Tamil month of Thai (January-February), for seven days, the sun’s rays fall directly on the moolavar in the evening. This event – called Surya Puja – is celebrated with great fervour by devotees and locals.