Sivan, Thillaiambur, Thanjavur

Basic information about the temple

Moolavar:	Sivan	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:	Thillaiambur	District:	Thanjavur
Maps from (click):	Current location	Kumbakonam (8 km)	Thanjavur (37 km)
	Tiruvarur (37 km)	Mayiladuthurai (43 km)

Location

Sthala puranam and temple information

The inconspicuous village of Thillaiambur is located between Chandrasekarapuram and Valangaiman, on the northern banks of the Kudamurutti river. The name of the village suggests a strong connection with Lord Siva and Chidambaram (also called Thillai). Alternatively, it could have bene a thillai (mangrove) forest at some time.

The village has two temples – one is a proper Vishnu temple, for Venugopala Perumal. The other is this temple for Lord Siva.

To call it a temple is itself quite generous, given that it is only a tin roof shed that exists today. However, given the nearby Perumal temple, and also going by the apparent age of some of the vigrahams here, as well as their workmanship and iconography, it seems to be that this would likely have been a large and prosperous temple and village, at one point in time. The original temple here may have been a Chola temple.

All there is to call a temple today, is the cement floor and the vigrahams. However, these are more or less structured and placed as one would find in a proper temple. The Siva lingam faces east, with a Nandi in front of it. To the left is Vinayakar. The lingam and Vinayakar are rather new. There is a large, beautiful vigraham of Brahma, facing north (almost like a koshtam), and in the northeast part is another beautiful vigraham, this of Durga.

The locals here take care of the temple, and this place definitely deserves some uplift. The mere visiting of such village temples will add a lot of value, and hopefully kickstart the temple based ecosystem for the villagers.