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Last saturday, had been to Uthiramerur. The initial plan was to visit Uthiramerur Sundara Varadhar temple, and then proceed to thennangur. Left chennai by around 8.30 in the morning and after 2 hrs drive reached Uthiramerur by around 11. The traffic was bit high around the airport area. Otherwise it was a cool drive and the roads were really good. After reaching there the plans dynamically changed, and visited the following temples.

Balasubramanyaswamy Temple:
This temple was right next to the Sundara Varadhar temple. So decided to visit this place first. From outside it looked like any other murugan temple. Only after stepping in, you realise how old this temple is. This temple is a suyambhu murugan temple, and was built by jeyamkoNdan chozhan. In every murugan temple, you will find mayil(peacock) as the vaaganam(carrier) for lord murugan. But in this temple you find elephant as the vaaganam. The moorthy(statue) is 5.5 feet tall.You find huge rocks, within the uL pragaram as well as outside.
A very nice temple. And what struck me was the commitment of temple priest. After our darshan, we completed the pradakshanam and came back. At that time, the priest was performing the abhisheka for the god. Not a single soul was around. The priest didnt wait for anyone to come. He just carried on with his duty. I personally have seen that in many temples, god is made to wait for the pooja and abhisheka till someone turns up. Do visit this temple if you are going to Uthiramerur :-)

Sundara Varadhar Temple:
This is the main temple of Uthiramerur. This is one temple where you find sannidhi in three floors. In the ground floor, you find perumaL in standing position. In the first floor in the sitting position, and in the second floor in sleeping position.
The architecture is amazing. It seems that the ashtalakshmi temple in besant nagar, chennai was built after this architecture. But unlike ashtalakshmi temple, here you can easily climb the stairs and get down. Do not miss the interesting sculptures on the vimanam. Like the vimanam thaangi, dakshinamurthy(yes, a dakshinamurthy in perumaL temple), manmadhan, parasuramar, narasimhar etc. You get kalkaNdu and mundhiri/dratchai prasadham in this temple :-)
The main statues are made out of wood. No abhishekam or flower decorations. Only thaila kaapu.
And do ask the priest to show some light behind the statues. You will find colorful inscriptions similar to ajanta/ellora caves.
Those days the Maharaja’s used to enter the temple via a VIP entrance it seems. Now they have closed it. There is a statue of Brihu Maharishi as well. (Brihu Maharishi is supposed to the rishi, who excelled in temple architecture, planning etc. And he is treated on par with god). Couple of years back, the kumbabishekam of this temple was performed. It is well maintained. But there is maNdapam in the corner which seems to have been neglected :-(

There is a Sivan temple near the bus stand, where you can find old inscriptions. It seems that, uthiramerur was the first places to have democracy in place. More on that here.

Thirupulivanam:
I liked this temple the most. This temple is on the uthiramerur-kanchipuram road. 5 km from Uthiramerur, on the left side whilst going from uthiramerur. A very old temple vyakrapureeswarar temple. vyakrapada munivar(person with human body and tigers legs), pathanchali munivar(human body and snake legs and nandi devan were the most sincere followers of Lord Shiva. It seems Lord Shiva danced in chidambaram only on the request of vyakrapada and pathanchali munivars. This temple was built by kulothunga chozhan. Some unique things about this temple are as follows.

    You will find dakshinamurthy in the form of arthanaareswarar.
    Shivalingam has jada mudi. A very tall shivalingam.
    A surangam(subway) exists from here till sundara varadhar temple.
    Dwarabalakar statues are very very huge and artistically done.

You get that divine feeling for sure over here. A very nice place. The priest told us another interesting info. When you see from the Siva lingam, towards the nandi you will find 7 steps. These 7 steps can be looked as 7 days of a week, and also as the 7 stages of a human life :-)

Unfortunately this temple is not in a very good shape due to lack of funds. They are planning to have a kumbabishekam sometime next year. Please visit this temple if you can and do contribute for the kumbabishekam. I will also check with the temple priest, if they want volunteers for cleaning up the temple and areas around it. If interested, please let me know. We can take up this activity!

maagaRal:
This temple is another 10 kms from thirupulivanam on the kancheepuram road. A very well maintained beautiful temple. This temple was built by rajendra chozhan and dates back to many centuries. It seems lord appeared in the form of udumbu, and the king chased it. Suddenly the udumbu went inside a paambu putRu(Snake pit) and let its tail out. At that time, the king realised it was the lord himself. So he built a temple there. The siva linga is very small and it resembles the tail of udumbu extending out of the snake pit.
The temple is very very clean, and amazingly maintained. They could have done away with all color paintings. But thats ok. It is very rare to see such a well maintained temple. And some mega serial is being shot in this temple it seems. Rajarajeshwari or something!
In this temple, you find lord Murugan atop the elephant. And Bhairavar in arthanaareshwarar form. Ask the priest to show you the bhairavar statue and explain the sculpture. Its worth it.

Travel Details:
How to get there?
Uthiramerur is around 80 kms from chennai.
You can either go via kancheepuram (or) go from chennai on NH47 till pukkathurai and take a right turn from there. Amazing roads all the way
Thirupulivanam is 5 kms from Uthiramerur on the Uthiramerur-Kancheepuram road. Chances of you missing the temple is high. When you see the board ‘Thirupulivanam ungaLai varaverkiradhu’ keep a look out for the temple on the left.
magaRal is another 8-10 kms from Thirupulivanam on the same road. You will cross the river seyaaR on the way.

While coming back there is a short route. From maagaRal goto iLayavan velur, and then walajabad. Then from Walajabad to vandalur. Keep a watch on both sides while coming from magaRal towards walajabad. You will get to see atleast 4 to 5 extremely old and deserted temples :-(

P.S.
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