Anangur Agatheeswarar Temple, Mayiladuthurai

Address

Anangur Agatheeswarar Temple, Anangur, Kutralam circle, Mayiladuthurai District – 609 801.

Diety

Agatheeswarar Amman: Soundaryanayaki

Introduction

Thiruvalankadu on the Kumbakonam-Mayiladuthurai road and from there take off at Anangur on the road to Therazendur. The temple is under the control of the Hindu Temples Department as a primary temple. Anangur is revered as a place in the story where Ambika was cursed to earth as a cow and Thirumal as a shepherd. Situated on the banks of a large pond facing east, the temple has only Swami Ambal temples. Ganapati, Agathiyar, Natarajar, Thenmugan, Thiruvilanga Murthy, Brahma, Pitsadanar, Durga and Mathoru Bhagan are found in the fortified porches of the temple. Of these, however, only the south face is worshiped. In the sanctum sanctorum, Agathiswarar appears as the Chaturalinga Lord. The linga panam is small. Ambika Soundaryanayaki blesses the standing kolat with four thirukkaras. The temple is spread over half an acre. There are no deities in Prakaram, only a lingam in the west and Jashta Devi in the northwest. Sanders is there. The statue of Goddess Jashta is one of the accompanying deities. Thus, the temple is considered to be one of the richest temples in the genre of ancient Chola art. Although there are innumerable specialties, only one period puja is performed which is also the peak period puja. At other times, an old woman named Rukmini from this village is doing the work of cleaning the temple.

Puranic Significance

The story is true because the legends of so many towns like Theralundur, Billur, Anangur, Thirukulambiyam, Thiruvaduthurai, Courtallam, Ethirkolpadi, Velvikudi, Kurumulaippali, Thirumanancheri have come together to form a single story. Anangur is the name given to a cow. Kandaratidhar (950-957 AD), son of the first Paranthaka Chola, was the Chola emperor. The goddess was the Chola empress Sembian Mathew. He inspired the development of Chola period temple architecture. Anangur Agathiswaram Temple is one of the temples taken by him. There are innumerable inscriptions in the Anangur interior. Most of the inscriptions in the temple have become unreadable due to the low quality of the white marble, and although six inscriptions are now intact, some of the inscriptions found here are later destroyed and are found on the wall of the temple as fragmentary inscriptions. “With the kind permission of Sri Kadambur K. Vijayan, these are extracted from his posts”.