Narasingham Yoga Narasimhar temple,Yanamalai Near Madurai

Madurai city fascinates me a lot. It is well planned city as the whole town is created around the Madurai Meenakhi temple, the streets are designed like the petals of a lotus. Keep moving through the streets and one would see how lively each street is.There is a saying that this city never sleeps.

The temple city and surroundings have umpteen number temples which I have visited and posted here   during my sojourns to this favourite city of mine. 

Last visit to this temple city, included a visit to an  8th century ( 770 AD) temple of  Yoga Narasimhar , Yaanamalai at Narasigham village.  This is  famous landmark which lies on the outskirts of Madurai. Yanamalai is a huge rock which resembles a huge sleeping elephant ( yaanai in Tamil means elephant) . 

This temple  of Narasimhar is carved out of rock and the monolithic idol of Lord Narasimhar is found in the inner most part of the cave . The idol of Lord shines as it is adorned in silver kavacham and silk. The aura surrounding the deity envelopes one as we near the sanctum. It is an overwhelming experience. The Lord here is sitting here as Santhaswaroopi as he is giving darshan as Yoga Narasimhar.

The utsava moorthy of this temple is unique as  the deity is in a standing posture with Sudarshana Chakra and the conch in his upper hands and with mace and abhayamudra in lower two hands.

Spend a little time with  folded hands and  receive blessings of the Lord here.

The thayar here is Narasingha valli and her shrine is just near the entrance of the temple. 

The  temple has beautiful tower and there is also a big lotus pond  outside the temple, a temple worth visiting to  experience the bliss which will touch one and all who believes in Him.

The temple is built by Pandyas and is situated on the Madurai- Melur road at about 8 Kms from Maduri city.

How to reach- Madurai is well connected by rail, road and air. Bus , auto rickshaws as well as cabs ply to this temple.

Excellent accommodation facilities are available in city of Madurai.

you may get in touch with me for any queries at manchitra.yahoo.co.in

Kalayar koil, kaleeshwarar koil, Sivagangai, Tamilnadu

Kalayar Kovil, is  an ancient temple more than 1000 years old situated in a small village 16 Kms East of Sivaganga and about 63 Kilometers  from the temple city of  Madurai. This temple lies quite close to the temple of   Kannudeya Nayagi temple( 12Kms)

Once inside the village, what one comes across is a huge temple with multiple tiered  Gopurams standing side by side guarding the temple like a fort. There are  fantastic sculptures which would hold anyone  spell bound as it is difficult to believe that such a temple can exist in an obscure place. We came to know about the temple through local people as there was no information available about this temple on the net.

The deity here is Siva known as Swarna Kaleeswarar as well as Kalayar . The temple corridors are long and spacious  lined with granite pillars with finely chiselled work . The temple is designed well to let the sunshine inside and the Sun bathes the interiors with its golden rays. The corridors also opens into an  open courtyard halfway through and one can see temples lined here for  Gods and Goddesses. There is also a separate shrine for Siva's consort  Swarnavalli Amman.

The other major shrine inside the temple complex is that of Someshwarar (Siva)which is situated at an elevation. The Nandi here sits majestically on a tall pedestal and the Sahasra Lingam just outside this shrine is a splendid work of  fine carvings on granite.  (Sahasra Lingam is a Sivalingam with thousands of Sivalingams carved on it).

One can find Madurai Meenakshi Amman and Sundareshwarar shrines here and  I have observed that most  of the  Siva temples I have visited in last few years have all  Sivalingams of  famous temples in India, housed  under one roof like Ramanathar of Rameshwaram, Kalahastheeswar of Kalahasti, Kasi Viswanathar of Varanasi  etc. One would lose count of the Sivalingams lined up in a row around the temple. One can offer worship to all  these famous temples from  one single point . I feel this was done  with the idea  to facilitate pilgrims who cannot travel to distant places as travel was difficult and tedious in the days of yore.

How to reach- One can travel to Sivaganga either from Madurai or Trichy.
 A few clicks!!

Kala Megha Perumal Temple- Thiru Moghur, Madurai

Kala Megha Perumal temple in Thiru Moghur is the 46th divya desham of Vishnu. The temple recently got a face lift and looks fresh and brightly painted. The main idol of Vishnu is huge and is flanked by his His consorts Boodevi and Sreedevi.

Moghur comes from Mohini, the beautiful female form of Lord Vishnu who had taken this form to save the nectar from the Asuras. The Utsavar here is worshipped here in that form and the Lord is also referred to as Kala Megham , meaning dark clouds. Like dark clouds shower rains, the Lord here showers blessings on his devotees. Here the deity is like the Varadaraja of Kanchipuram and is holding a mace in his left hand and with his right blesses his devotees. There are separate shrines for Mohanavalli Thayar , Andal and Navaneetha Krishnan.

The Sudarshana Chakra occupies a significant place here and this shrine is behind the Thayar sannidhi and the vimanam atop is gold plated. The Sudharshana idol here is special with sixteen hands, holding 16 different weapons and is believed that he is moving forward to help his bhaktas (devotees) The Sudarshana image has the Lord Narasimha Moorthy on the back side in a yogic posture and same can be seen on the Utsavar here. Devotees offer their worship to the Utsavar of Chakra thazhwar which is kept in front of the Thayar sannidhi.

The Vimanam of the main temple is round in shape and is called Ketaki Vimanam. This temple also has beautiful carvings. The dwaja sthambam is in the outer most prakkaram and there is a huge mandapam and a shrine dedicated to Adi Sayana perumal. The deity here is reclining on Adisesha and Goddesses are sitting near his foot and praying to him. One has to first offer the worship here before proceeding to offer prayers to Kala Megha Perumal. There is also a shrine for Anjaneyar here on the South side. There is a tank outside the temple .

This temple is 8 kms. from Madurai.and one may have to take buses to this village from Mattuthavani bus stand.

The Ketaki Vimanam of the main temple

Carving on the pillar

The flag post

The Pillars with carvings

The God of Love ,Kama

Andal shrine

Gold plated sanctum of Chakrathazhwar

Some more photos of the temple, watch the slide show