Virudhachalam Vedappar (Murugan) Temple

Address

Virudhachalam district,

Tamil Nadu 606 001

Phone: +91 8508017757

Moolavar

Vedappar (Murugan)

Amman

Valli Devasena

Introduction

Virudhachalam Vedappar Temple is in the outskirts of Virudhachalam town. It is around 2 Kms from the bus stand on the Pennadam road, near the bye-pass. The name Vedappar here refers to Murugan. The sthala vruksham is Uga tree. The theertham is the Manimutharu River. The temple is open from 6 am to noon and from 3 to 6 pm.

Puranic Significance

Virudhachalam temples, Sundarar was visiting the temples in this area. When he came to Virudhachalam, he did not visit the Virudhagireeswarar (Pazhamalainathar) temple. He felt that as it was an old temple, he might not be properly rewarded. So he tried skipping the temple. The Lord wanted to show the proper way to His favorite devotee (Sundarar was considered a friend of the Lord rather than a mere devotee as revealed by several episodes in his life).

The Lord advised Murugan to stop Sundarar from leaving the town without visiting His temple. Murugan blocked all the four directions of the town in the form of four temples-as Kolanjiappar in the west, as Vennumalaiappar at Kandiyankuppam in the north, as Karumpayiram Kondavar at Komavidanthal in the east and as Vedappar in the Pennadam road in the south. He also took the form of a brigand and waylaid Sundarar and took away whatever wealth he was carrying and made him go to Pazhamalainathar temple to lodge a complaint! The name Vedappar was on account of this episode. (The sthala puranam is identical to that of Kolanjiappar temple)

According to the local accounts, Sundarar lodged a complaint with not only Pazhamalainathar, but also in other temples like this one and Kolanjiappar. When the Lord gave him darshan and explained the reason for such a drama, Sundarar realized his error and sang on Pazhamalainathar before leaving Virudhachalam. From that time onwards, there is a system of devotees filing complaints/applications in this temple along with a prescribed, narrating their problems and seeking Divine intervention. . This is to be repeated for two more weeks and the issue will be resolved within 3 months. Generally people submit applications/complaints about missing/stolen items and the locals affirm that the items would be restored within the prescribed period. (Same system is followed in Kolanjiappar temple also).

Special Features

From the sthala puranam, it is difficult to make out the period of construction. The temple is said to be more than 1300 years old. There are no inscriptions found in the temple. Sundarar is given a lot of importance in this temple. First pooja is performed to him. The main shrine has Vedappar with Valli and Devasena. There is a separate shrine for Vinayakar. The village deities- Muneeswaran and Karuppaswamy- are installed in the prakaram. Like the other village temples, here also the sudhai made horse etc are present in the compound. Murugan’s vahanam, Peacock is also present in the compound.