Kapaleeswarar Temple - Kayilaiyae Mayilai, Mayilaiyae Kayilai
Kapaleeswar Temple is located in the hot of the Chennai city around 2 kms from sea shore. This temple is quiet historic and legends goes beyond 6th century.
Temple opens from 5 AM in the morning till 12.30 PM and reopens again at 4 PM to 9 PM
Once Parvathi was very interested to know the meaning of OM NAMASHIVAYA and reason of ashes being used. After asking Lord Shiva multiple times, finally Lord Shiva agreed to share the reasons, while sharing the reasons, like any student Goddess Parvathi was distracted by a peacock which was dancing, seeing this Lord felt furious and cursed Goddess Parvathi to become Peacock, after a while, Lord came to normal and informed Parvathi in peacock form to do the penance in Mayilai. Agreeing to that Goddess in peacock form went and built a linga and did the penance,
Seeing this, Lord was completely satisfied and converted the Peacock back to Goddess Parvathi and made her to be Karpagavalli Thayar (a) Karpagambal. Goddess also requested Lord to change the place name to Mayyilai which now converted to Mylapore. Mayilai means Mayil ( peacock) residing place.
Also once Lord Brahma was considered him equal to Lord Shiva and was disrespectful, Lord Shiva got hurted and plucked one of the faces of Lord Brahma and removed him from creator role. Understanding his fault, Lord Brahma went to Mayillai where he did the penance with the same Linga and got back his creator role again.
The temple is several years old, Thalami, a greek researcher has referred this location as Malliarpa 2000 years back, means peacock residing place
It is beleived that this temple was built by Pallavas in 5th or 6th century as Mayillai references goes way back during this period. All the three Nayanmars Appar, Sundarar, Gnasambandar have visited this place and praised Hymns. Thiru Gnana sambandar has refered this place in Thiruvasagam which is supposed to be around 7th or 8th century.
This is also the place where Thirugnanasambandar brought back a girl to life from her ashes. There was a siva follower named Sivanesan lived in Mayilai, he had a daughter named Poompavai. Upon hearing about the child Thirugnanasambandar, Sivanesan wished to get her daughter married to him. However one fine day while walking, Poompavai was bit by a snake and she was dead, Sivanesan was very said by this incident, however retained her bone and ashes to hand it over to Thirugnanasambandar when he meets him. When Thirugnanasambandar came to Mayilai, Sivanesan told his wish and story and gave the pot with bones and ashes to him. Hearing this, Thirugnanasambandar started to sing a pathigam of 10 verses beggining with "Mattita Punnai' where he talked about every Pooja that happens to Kabaleeswarar in this temple and asked how can the girl get disappeared without seeing those, much to everyone's suprise, the pot broke and she came back in the same way how she was. Sivanesan joy knew know bound and asked the saint to marry his daughter, however Thirugnanasambandar refused and informed him that he is not equal to father as he brought her back to life. Poompavai spent rest of her life by serving to Kapaleeswarar and reached Lord's feet.
All the 3 nayanmars visited this place and it is 24th in the list of 276 padal petra sthalam, Lord Rama did pooja here before travelling to Lanka, Arunagirinathar visited this place and praised Lord Murugar in singaravelan form in his Thirupgazh; Lord Muruga got his Vel from Mother Parvathi in this same place before soorasamharam. This place is also called as Sukrapuri as Sukrachariyar prayed Lord Siva here. All the 4 vedas had visited and prayed to Kabaleeswarar here. Vayilar attained moksha in this place. Saint Thiruvalluvar's birth place is Mayilai who wrote Thirukural which is still hold good for current life style of people.
In all the references this temple was in sea shore, however portugese demolished this temple during their invasion and later Vijayanagar Kingdom re-built this temple inside the city by raising it from the left over remains. The current goppuram was build in 19th century.
Temple has Vinayagar right the entrace and is called as dancing vinayagar.Singaravelar is next with Valli and Deivayanai. Goddess here is refered as Karpagambal and then Lord Siva in lingam form is referred as Kapaleeswarar. Special entrace tickets are available for fast entrance. The temple also has a big pond. Panguni bramotsavam is very famous in this temple which happens during Apr-May time frame where everyone visits this temple to get Lord's blessing
Temple also has navagraha like any siva temple and has cows where we can feed the cows and do koo pooja
Kapaleeswar Temple is located in the hot of the Chennai city around 2 kms from sea shore. This temple is quiet historic and legends goes beyond 6th century.
Temple opens from 5 AM in the morning till 12.30 PM and reopens again at 4 PM to 9 PM
Once Parvathi was very interested to know the meaning of OM NAMASHIVAYA and reason of ashes being used. After asking Lord Shiva multiple times, finally Lord Shiva agreed to share the reasons, while sharing the reasons, like any student Goddess Parvathi was distracted by a peacock which was dancing, seeing this Lord felt furious and cursed Goddess Parvathi to become Peacock, after a while, Lord came to normal and informed Parvathi in peacock form to do the penance in Mayilai. Agreeing to that Goddess in peacock form went and built a linga and did the penance,
Seeing this, Lord was completely satisfied and converted the Peacock back to Goddess Parvathi and made her to be Karpagavalli Thayar (a) Karpagambal. Goddess also requested Lord to change the place name to Mayyilai which now converted to Mylapore. Mayilai means Mayil ( peacock) residing place.
Also once Lord Brahma was considered him equal to Lord Shiva and was disrespectful, Lord Shiva got hurted and plucked one of the faces of Lord Brahma and removed him from creator role. Understanding his fault, Lord Brahma went to Mayillai where he did the penance with the same Linga and got back his creator role again.
The temple is several years old, Thalami, a greek researcher has referred this location as Malliarpa 2000 years back, means peacock residing place
It is beleived that this temple was built by Pallavas in 5th or 6th century as Mayillai references goes way back during this period. All the three Nayanmars Appar, Sundarar, Gnasambandar have visited this place and praised Hymns. Thiru Gnana sambandar has refered this place in Thiruvasagam which is supposed to be around 7th or 8th century.
This is also the place where Thirugnanasambandar brought back a girl to life from her ashes. There was a siva follower named Sivanesan lived in Mayilai, he had a daughter named Poompavai. Upon hearing about the child Thirugnanasambandar, Sivanesan wished to get her daughter married to him. However one fine day while walking, Poompavai was bit by a snake and she was dead, Sivanesan was very said by this incident, however retained her bone and ashes to hand it over to Thirugnanasambandar when he meets him. When Thirugnanasambandar came to Mayilai, Sivanesan told his wish and story and gave the pot with bones and ashes to him. Hearing this, Thirugnanasambandar started to sing a pathigam of 10 verses beggining with "Mattita Punnai' where he talked about every Pooja that happens to Kabaleeswarar in this temple and asked how can the girl get disappeared without seeing those, much to everyone's suprise, the pot broke and she came back in the same way how she was. Sivanesan joy knew know bound and asked the saint to marry his daughter, however Thirugnanasambandar refused and informed him that he is not equal to father as he brought her back to life. Poompavai spent rest of her life by serving to Kapaleeswarar and reached Lord's feet.
All the 3 nayanmars visited this place and it is 24th in the list of 276 padal petra sthalam, Lord Rama did pooja here before travelling to Lanka, Arunagirinathar visited this place and praised Lord Murugar in singaravelan form in his Thirupgazh; Lord Muruga got his Vel from Mother Parvathi in this same place before soorasamharam. This place is also called as Sukrapuri as Sukrachariyar prayed Lord Siva here. All the 4 vedas had visited and prayed to Kabaleeswarar here. Vayilar attained moksha in this place. Saint Thiruvalluvar's birth place is Mayilai who wrote Thirukural which is still hold good for current life style of people.
In all the references this temple was in sea shore, however portugese demolished this temple during their invasion and later Vijayanagar Kingdom re-built this temple inside the city by raising it from the left over remains. The current goppuram was build in 19th century.
Temple has Vinayagar right the entrace and is called as dancing vinayagar.Singaravelar is next with Valli and Deivayanai. Goddess here is refered as Karpagambal and then Lord Siva in lingam form is referred as Kapaleeswarar. Special entrace tickets are available for fast entrance. The temple also has a big pond. Panguni bramotsavam is very famous in this temple which happens during Apr-May time frame where everyone visits this temple to get Lord's blessing
Temple also has navagraha like any siva temple and has cows where we can feed the cows and do koo pooja
