Kapaleeswarar Temple, Mylapore

Deity

Kapaleeswarar and Karpagambal, with the peacock shrine

Where

Chennai, Tamil Nadu · 13.03N 80.27E

Usual hours

5.30 am – 12.30 pm, 4 pm – 9 pm — hours change with festivals and the season; check before travelling. Were these right when you went?

Grahas

Chandran Sukran

Visited for

Where Parvathi worshipped as a peahen, and Sambandar brought a girl back from a pot of ash. The Panguni Peruvizha and Arupathimoovar are its festivals.

The sthala purana has it that Parvathi worshipped Sivan here in the form of a peahen, under the punnai tree that still stands in the outer court. Mayil is the Tamil word for a peacock, and Mylapore is read from it.

The temple’s other story is Sambandar’s. Poompavai, the daughter of a merchant of this town, is said to have died of snakebite, and her father to have kept her ashes in a pot. When Sambandar came, he is said to have sung over the pot and the girl to have risen from it; the hymn is still known as the Poompavai Padigam.

Mylapore is a Tevaram Paadal Petra Sthalam, so worship here is older than the building by a long way.

The temple standing today is of the Vijayanagara period. An older Kapaleeswarar temple is traditionally said to have stood closer to the sea and to have been lost; where exactly it stood, and how it was lost, has been argued over for a long time and is not settled.

The eastern gopuram is the one in every photograph of Mylapore, and it faces the temple tank across the road.

The punnai tree with the peahen shrine beneath it is in the outer prakaram. Karpagambal’s shrine is on the south side of the inner court.

The sixty-three Nayanmar bronzes are kept in the outer prakaram, and they are what is carried in procession at the Arupathimoovar festival.

The Panguni Peruvizha runs for ten days. On the eighth, Arupathimoovar, all sixty-three Nayanmars are taken round the four Mada streets, and Mylapore is closed to traffic for it.

The float festival on the tank in Thai, Maha Sivaratri, the Aadi Fridays at the Amman shrine and the Margazhi mornings are the other days.

Also called

Kapali Kovil, Mylai

Period

The present temple is of the Vijayanagara period, over a much older foundation

Reaching it

The temple is in Mylapore, in the middle of Chennai. Thirumayilai MRTS station is a few minutes away, Chennai Egmore about 6 km, and buses stop on the tank road.

• Parthasarathy Temple, Triplicane 2.2 km · Vaishnava
• Ashtalakshmi Temple, Besant Nagar 4.4 km · Vaishnava
• Vadapalani Andavar Temple 6.9 km · Murugan
• Sri Bhaktha Anjaneyar Temple, Nanganallur 9.7 km · Vaishnava
• Thyagaraja Swamy Temple, Thiruvottiyur 14.8 km · Saiva
• Thiruneermalai Ranganatha Perumal Temple 16.7 km · Vaishnava

Been to this temple? The things that change — whether the hours on this page were right, whether the sannidhi was open, how long the queue was on a Saturday — are exactly what no printed source keeps current, and what the next person travelling here needs.

• Were the hours right when you went?
• Is anything on this page wrong or out of date?
• A photograph of the gopuram, the tank, or the notice board

A contribution carries a name, so a reader knows whose account it came from. That is why it needs an account, and it is the only reason.

Sign in and add yours