Saiva · Tamil Nadu
Nellaiappar Temple, Tirunelveli
நெல்லையப்பர் கோயில்
Nellaiappar and Kanthimathi, with the musical pillars
GeneralMarriage
The temple in short
- Deity
- Nellaiappar and Kanthimathi, with the musical pillars
- Where
- Tamil Nadu · 8.73N 77.69E
- Usual hours
- 6 am – 12.30 pm, 4 pm – 8.30 pm — hours change with festivals and the season; check before travelling. Were these right when you went?
- Grahas
- Guru
- Visited for
- The temple whose stone pillars ring with the notes of a scale, and whose Thamirabarani festival floods the town. Aani Thirumanjanam is its day.
The sthala purana
Tradition, as it is told at the temple
The sthala purana explains the name of the town. A devotee is said to have spread his paddy out to dry and gone to bathe, and rain to have come while he was away; when he returned the rain had fallen everywhere but on his paddy, which stood inside a fence of it. Nel is paddy and veli a fence, and Thirunelveli is read from that.
What is recorded
Documented history
Nellaiappar is a Tevaram Paadal Petra Sthalam. The Nellaiappar and Kanthimathi temples were originally separate and were joined by the Chain Mandapam, built in the Nayak period, so the complex reads as one temple with two halves.
What there is to see
Description
The musical pillars in the Mani Mandapam are the best known in the state: clusters of slender stone shafts cut from a single block, each ringing at a different pitch.
The Chain Mandapam between the two temples, the thousand-pillared hall and the painted ceilings are the other things to walk for.
The temple tank, the Golden Lily tank, lies inside the enclosure. The temple car is among the largest in the south and is kept in a shed on the main street.
The temple year
The days it is fullest
The Aani Thirumanjanam is the temple’s great festival, and the car festival that goes with it fills the four streets.
Maha Sivaratri, Navaratri at the Kanthimathi shrine and the Thai float festival are the other days. Aadi Amavasai brings tarpanam crowds to the Thamirabarani nearby.
Getting there, and what else it is called
- Also called
- Nellaiappar Kanthimathi Temple, Thirunelveli
- Period
- Older core, with the Nayak-period halls and the Chain Mandapam added in the seventeenth century
- Reaching it
- The temple is in the old part of Tirunelveli, about 3 km from Tirunelveli Junction railway station and roughly 55 km from Thoothukudi.
Where it is
Others within reach
Nearest first, by straight-line distance
- Sri Vaikuntanathan Perumal Temple, Srivaikuntam 26.6 km · Vaishnava
- Vanamamalai Perumal Temple, Nanguneri 26.9 km · Vaishnava
- Vijayasana Perumal Temple, Natham 27.2 km · Vaishnava
- Kaisina Vendan Perumal Temple, Thirupuliangudi 28.2 km · Vaishnava
- Adinathar Perumal Temple, Alwarthirunagari 30.5 km · Vaishnava
- Vaithamanidhi Perumal Temple, Thirukkolur 33 km · Vaishnava
Add what you know
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
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Parihaaram is traditional practice, offered for devotion and peace of mind; it is not a guaranteed cure of any condition. Temple hours change with festivals and the season, so check before travelling.