Swetharanyeswarar Temple :: Thiruvenkadu – Budhan Sthalam

Swetharanyeswarar Temple

Thiruvenkadu – Budhan Sthalam

Swetharanyeswarar Temple is a Hindu temple located in the town of Thiruvengadu near Sirkazhi. The main deity is Shiva - Swetharanyeswarar ("lord of white forest") and the goddess is Brahma Vidya ambal. There is a separate Sannidhi for Bhudhan (mercury). The temple is quite large and all four important Saivite saints have sung in praise of this lord.

This temple is especially known for its unique incarnate of Lord Shiva called "Agora Murthi". He is one of the main god who is being prayed in this village.

Thiruvengadu village is also famous for its unique structure of pools in temples. This temple has 3 pools, 3 Gods. It is a belief that who takes bath in all these pools, the one will be free from their problems like diseases, delay in marriage, etc.,.

Swetharanyeswarar is the main God in this temple. It is said that Agora Murthi was one of the furious incarnation of Lord Shiva. There was an Evil named "Maruthuvasuran" in Thiruvengadu. He had a deep meditation on Lord Bhrama for power. Being satisfied with his meditation, Lord Bhrama offered him many powers. But he used those powers in a wrong ways. He started to torture the saints and innocent people. Having nothing to do, all the saints and people requested Lord Shiva to put an end to this evil. As they asked, Lord Shiva took his incarnation 'Agora murthi' and killed the 'Maruthuvasuran under a tree (which is now in Thiruvengadu temple, back to the entrance of Agora murthi). All the people thanked Lord Shiva for saving them

This Shiva temple is one of the 6 most sacred places on the banks of river manikanigai and Cauvery which is considered as equivalent to the temple at Varanasi. The other 5 shivasthalams are Thiruvaiyaru, Chaayaavanam, Mayiladuturai, Tiruvidaimarudur and Tiruvanchiyam.

Indiran, Airavatam, Budhan, Sun God Sooriyan and Moon God Chandiran are said to have worshipped God Shiva here. From the stone inscriptions found inside this temple, it is seen that the earlier chola kings Aditya Chola and Rajaraja Chola have made a lot of contributions to this temple.

There are several shrines of significance in this well visited temple, including those to Durga and Kali. The image of Natarajar here is of great beauty. Worship to Aghoramurthy - (Veerabhadrar) is said to be of significance on Sunday nights in this temple. As found in Chidambaram, there is also a shrine for Lord Vishnu near the shrine for Natarajar. This is adi (first) chidambaram because before dancing shiva in chidambaram he done the first dance here.[1]

Marutwasura, an asura, was troubling the Rishis and the people of Thiruvenkadu.  The people prayed to Lord Shiva.  Lord Shiva sent Nandi (Bull) – his vahana, to fight the demon. Marutwasura was defeated by Nandi and thrown into the sea. Marutwasura through his penance obtained sula – from Lord Shiva.  The demon then returned with greater intensity to attack the innocent people.  Once again, at the request of the devotees, Shiva sent Nandi.  However, on this occasion, Nandi could not fight the demon as the demon had the Sula of Shiva.  The demon caused wounds on Nandi’s back with the Sula.  The idol of Nandi which bears scars on its body is seen here.

An angry Shiva opened his Third Eye and killed the demon.  The idol of Aghoramurthy, a manifestation of Shiva’s anger, is installed in Thiruvenkadu. Worshiping Aghoramurthy, especially on Sunday nights is considered important and special.

There is also another story of Swetaketu associated with Thiruvenkadu.  Swetaketu’s story is similar to that of Markendaiyan.  Swetaketu was destined to die at the end of his eight year but the Lord prevented Yama from taking His devotee’s life.

Lord Shiva is known to have performed his seven forms of dance or Tandavam viz Ananda tandavam, Sandhya tandavam, Samhara tandavam, Tripuranta tandavam, Urdhva tandavam, Bhujanga tandavam and Lalita tandavam here.  The three holy tanks here, known as Agni Theertham, Surya Theertham and Chandra Theertham are believed to have been created out of the three drops which fell from Lord Shiva’s eyes when he was dancing.  Another rare feature is that the deity is present here with five faces viz Easanam, Tatpurusham, Aghoram, Vamadevam and Sadyojatam.  They represent direction and an aspect of Lord Shiva.  Easanam is facing the sky and represents purity, Vamdevam faces north and represents sustenance, Tatpurisha faces east and represents spirituality that has destroyed the ego, Aghoram faces south and represents the destructive and regenerative aspect of Shiva,  Sadyojatam faces west and represents creation.