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 Thirty years ago, the Marundeeswarar temple at Tiruvanmiyur
used to be virtually deserted. Today, it has been colorfully painted up and receives a
steady crowd. The name of the temple tells the story. Lord Siva is said to have given
relief from health problems to the sage Agastya, the Sun God and the Moon God here. While
Agastya was suffering from a stomach ache after he had Vatapi, the Sun and Moon were
suffering from a terrible disease because of "Gurupatni Dosham".
It was Agastya who named the deity
"Aushadeeswarar", the Tamil translation of which is Marundeeswarar. The Sun and
the Moon, it is said, perform puja at this temple every evening. The deity faces west as
the Sun does the honours at sunset time. Unlike other Siva temples, this temple does not
have a shrine to the Navagrahas because the Sun and Moon are in prayer mode here.
The main "lingam" is described as
Swayambu. He is
also called "Palvannanathan" because Kamadhenu, the divine cow, used to shower
him with milk constantly. There is a small pit on the
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There is a small pit on the "head" of the deity which
legend says is the mark of Kamadhenu’s hoof.
The
"devi" here is Thiruppurasundari. Apart from shrines to Lord Vinayaka and Lord
Subramania, there is a unique shrine here to Valmiki, the sage who authored Ramayana.
Valmiki is said to have performed "tapas" at the spot where the temple stands,
to get "darshan" of Lord Tyagarajaswami. The Lord gave darshan to Valmiki in a
dancing pose beneath the west tower of the temple.
The name Tiruvanmiyur is in fact derived from Valmiki Thiru
Vanmiki yuur. There is an architectural peculiarity in this temple. Part of it has been
built in the Chola style of architecture and part of it in the Pallava style. The
Kumbabhishekam after renovation was conducted in 1995.
Those who visit this temple sincerely believe, as do the
priests, that the mixture of sacred ash, milk and water offered at the temple and consumed
thereafter can cure any ailment
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