Sri Angala Parameswari temple putlur chennai

Sri Angala Parameswari temple  putlur chennai

Angala Parameswari Temple in Putlur near Chennai city of South India is one of the famous temples of Mother Goddess. The goddess is in the form of a pregnant woman in this temple.


Chennai, the gateway to South India, has a lot of tourist sites and important temples in and around. There is a small village named Putlur in the route of Chennai to Tiruvallur. This village has a famous temple for mother goddess - Angala Parameswari. This is a swayambu idol - meaning the idol which was formed on its own; no one made it.

Shivarathri and Masi Magam crematorium robbery festival in February-March, Aadi Fridays in July-August and New Moon day pujas are celebrated in the temple.

Majority of the devotees to the temple are women. One feels an exciting feeling sooner entering the temple. The temple is filled with turmeric and kumkum smell. Women place a lime fruit at the feet of the Goddess keeping their sari pallu also there with some prayer. If the fruit rolls and falls at the sari piece, it indicates their wish will be fulfilled, it is believed.

The temple is open from 6.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. and from 2.00 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.

Sri Angala Parameswari Temple, Ramapuram (Putlur)-602 025. Tiruvallur district.

Devotees pray for child boon, those facing problems in wedding proposals and those having family problems, tear a piece from their sari and tie it in the neem tree.  Realizing their wishes, they come to the temple, thank the Goddess with pujas.

Lord Shiva and Parvathi were walking from Melmalayanur towards Ramapuram ( the place where this temple is located, which subsequently came to be known as Putlur because of the Goddess manifesting herself in the form of a Putru – an anthill). This place was a forest those days full of neem trees. Parvathi tired after the long walk, sat down and asked Lord Shiva to fetch her some water. Lord Shiva went searching for water but could not find any nearby. He had to go to the river Coovam (Once Coovam was having excellent pure water) to bring the water. It started raining heavily and the river was getting flooded. So he had to wait a while for the rain to subside. Tired of waiting for the Lord, and exhausted with hunger and thrist, the Goddess lay down on the floor and an anthill (புற்று) grew over her. She became one and the same with the anthill.

Majority of the devotees pray for child boon

Goddess appears as a women suffering from labour pain lying with Her mouth open.  Behind the sanctum sanctorum are the shrines of Lord Vinayaka, Lord Nataraja in the name of Thandavarayan and Angala Parameswari.

One Ponmeni pledged his land to a money lender named Makisuran.  He worked in the same land to maintain his family.  Unscrupulous Makisuran tortured all the people this way by lending them money and swelled their liabilities with abnormal compound interest rates.  He thus swallowed the lands of all.  He severely beat Ponmeni due to default in payments and demanded Ponmeni in the presence of villagers to plough the Poongavanam out side the place in a single night on Shivrathri day before sunrise and threatened to do with his life if he failed to do so.

Poongavanam is the place of evil spirits.  Ponmeni thought it better to fail and die in a day than dying each day.  He began tilling the land praying to Mother Karumayee.  He saw an old man and an aged woman under a tree.  The woman was very thirsty.  Ponmeni helped the old man to fetch water.  When they returned, they found the woman disappearing.  When Ponmeni turned to the old man, he also was not there.  When Ponmeni resumed his tilling, he found the plough stuck and the spot began to bleed.  A voice assured him of safety and said “I am Angala Parameswari who came in the guise of the aged woman.  Now, I am an ant-hill here.  Responding to your prayer, I came with Lord Shiva.  As my presence had been made known to the world by you, you will be relieved of poverty, continue worshipping me and the Lord.”

Within a few minutes the anthill became visible.  As the Goddess appeared from Poongavanam, she came to be worshipped as Poongavanathu Amman.

Majority of the devotees to the temple are women. One feels an exciting feeling sooner entering the temple. The temple is filled with turmeric and kumkum smell. Women place a lime fruit at the feet of the Goddess keeping their sari pallu also there with some prayer. If the fruit rolls and falls at the sari piece, it indicates their wish will be fulfilled, it is believed.

A per the legend, a poor villager was tortured by a village head for the borrowed money, and he was forced to plough an infertile land. While ploughing the land full of rocks, the village noticed that blood was oozing out from a particular place, and he discovered the idol of Goddess. It is basically an ant hole (putru in Tamil - where snakes live) in the form of a woman in sleeping posture with open mouth and with the stomach like a pregnant woman.