if voices in chennai remind you of a fisherman's slang dont fret read this
north east madras kamban finished writing his ra mayan at tiruvotriyur when he had a writers cramp the vattapaarai amman there held a torch for him to write pattinaththaar attained samathi here ( pattinathar lived in the eara before poompuhar was wiped out in a tidal wave) and last but not least sundarar the most colourful of the devaram trio commited bigamy here- married the second time and got into a hell of a lot of trouble in the home front.( 8th century)
mid east madras
thiruvaluvar wrote his magnum opus in mylpore
south east madras
on the other end of madras valmiki reportedly attained moksham in thiruvanmiyur. must be right because not many places can boast of a temple to him( there is one right in the middle of ecr) and nowhere else is such a costly piece of real estate named after this hunter turned poet- vanmiyur.( since 7th century ad)
so next time somebody calls you a madarasi be proud of your literary heritage
Dear Venkatesh Really very interesting mails regarding the Vahanam and madrasi heritage...the main reason our old heritage doesnt reach all of us is because its not duely publicised .....conflict between ASI and Hindu aranilai thurai I guess... In UK you find big posts and directions to places of life and work of great scholars like Wordsworth country and shakespeare country.....
I have always been proud of my madrasi heritage ;) No questions about it.. My only point is that we tamils have done such a poor job of highlighting (even to our own people) such wonderful historical heritage sites.
And Sekkizhar hailed from Kundrathur-Pallavaram area.
Even in recent history, Subramanya Bharathi had his years in Thiruvallikenni. Papanasam Sivan was a Mylapore vaasi.
If you dig deeper you would find quite a few of laureates of Pallava times hailing from chennai and environs. Azhvaars Pei, Bhootham and Pozhigai are good candidates and of course we have Thirumazhisai azhar whose place is within a crow's flight from Chennai.
After all as the proverd goes "Thondai naadu Saandror Udaithu"
why forget Ramalinga Swamigal??? ramalinga swamigal spent most of his life in Chennai near "Kandha Kottam temple", in mint Street and a great devotee of Kandha kottam Murugan. . He used to daily walk to Vadivudaiamman temple in Tiruvotriyur from Mint Street to worship the deity. He was also an aredent worshipper of "Tiruvalleeswarar".. the god of Thiruvalidhaayam now known as Padi.
and the "Town " area of Chennai is a treasure... u can find a lot of great temples,like "Ekambareswar temple", 'Chennamalleswarar Temple, ", "Chenna Kesava perumal Temple", "Kaalikaambal Temple", not to forget the great "Kandhaswamy temple of Kandhakottam" and waltax road contains "Satyanaraya temple", the only one of its kind in chennai i suppose.
Vallalar has said "Dharumamigu Chennai.".. Remember.
"Muthuswami Deekshithar " was blessed by Tiruttani Murugan and his first song was in praise of tiruttani murugan - "Vijayavalli barthare"..
Tiruvotriyur is "SIDDHAR BHOOMI".. Lot of greats have been there,
ramalingaswamigal, pattinathar, tiruvotriyur thyagesar, sundarar(magizhadi sevai is famous), kalia nayanar , Kambar( as mentioned by venaktesh earlier) are some among the greats..
Even people belonging to "Kashmiri Shaivism" have built parts of the temple and there is a separate lingam installed by the kashmiri shaivaites...
Adi sankarar came here and established the "poojai murai's" for vadivudai amman. Even today, namboodhri's perform poojai to "Vadivudaiyaal" according to kerala traditions.
There are almost 7 main forms of Lingams and the most "mangala roopam " of gods, the "Somaskandhar" is worshipped in the form of "Thyagesar"
Lot of businessmen flock to Tiruvotriyur to have a darisanam of Vadivudaiyaal, especially on Fridays for she is the bestower of wealth.
Quite Interesting. Lots of information about Chennai..I know that there are lots of temple in and around chennai, but the flood of information is awesome. Most of them are news to me. Thanks to all for sharing and making this thread intersting.
The BIG question (i think Sri raised it) is why our people dont know / dont cherish these....I think almost all our members are having the same question in mind. Its not only about chennai, but people are not interested in knowing anything about our past.
The reason is, "whats the use know all these silly things". This is the answer I got when I tried to tell the greatness of our land to a couple of people. Everyone has this mentality, as what great is going to happen if I know the past."naya paisa prayojanam elladha vishayam" is the general tendency.
Good that atleast some 700 people in this group are interested in this line of thought.