Sakta (Amman) · Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu
Samayapuram Mariamman Temple
சமயபுரம் மாரியம்மன் கோயில்
Arulmigu Mariamman
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The temple in short
- Deity
- Arulmigu Mariamman
- Where
- Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu · 10.93N 78.74E
- 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
- Rahu Chandran
- Visited for
- The Amman of fevers and pox, whose maavilakku and thee mithi vows are kept by lakhs. The Poochoridal festival in Panguni and every Tuesday and Friday are its days.
The sthala purana
Tradition, as it is told at the temple
The sthala purana told in the district has it that the Amman was worshipped within the great temple at Srirangam and was afterwards moved out of it, and that a ruler of this country was directed in a dream to set her up at this village. She has been worshipped here ever since, and the Srirangam connection is still part of the story people tell.
She is a Mariamman, which is to say a village Amman of the kind a family turns to in illness rather than at a life ceremony. The vows kept here — the maavilakku lamp of rice flour, the firewalking, the shaving of the head, the carrying of a pot of milk — are the vows kept at Amman temples across Tamil Nadu, done here on a very large scale.
What there is to see
Description
The moolavar is not stone. She is made of sand and clay, so no water abhishekam is done to her; a smaller metal image is bathed instead and she is dressed and decorated.
The complex is broad and mostly open, built to take crowds rather than to be looked at. The firewalking pit and the halls for tonsure are in the outer courts, and rows of stalls sell maavilakku flour and turmeric along the approach.
The temple year
The days it is fullest
The Poochoridal festival in Panguni, when the Amman is covered in flowers, is the largest of the year and runs for several days.
Every Tuesday and Friday is busy, the Aadi and Thai Fridays heavily so, and the Chithirai car festival takes her through the village. Firewalking is done in the weeks around the main festival.
Getting there, and what else it is called
- Also called
- Kannanur Mariamman, Samayapurathal
- Reaching it
- Samayapuram is on the Chennai highway about 15 km north of Tiruchirappalli. Tiruchirappalli Junction is the nearest railway station, and city buses run to the temple gate.
Where it is
Others within reach
Nearest first, by straight-line distance
- Purushothaman Perumal Temple, Uthamar Kovil 7.1 km · Vaishnava
- Pundarikakshan Perumal Temple, Thiruvellarai 8.3 km · Vaishnava
- Jambukeswarar Temple, Thiruvanaikaval 9.5 km · Saiva
- Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam 9.5 km · Vaishnava
- Uchi Pillayar Temple, Rockfort 11.9 km · Ganapathi
- Appakkudathaan Perumal Temple, Koviladi 19.2 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.
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- 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.