Suryanar Koil

Deity

Suriyanar (Surya Bhagavan) with Kol Theertha Vinayagar and Kasi Viswanathar

Where

Aduthurai, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu · 11.00N 79.44E

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

Suriyan

Visited for

The only temple of the delta nine where the graha is the moolavar: Suriyan with all eight other grahas facing him. Sunday, and Rathasapthami in Thai, are its days; visited for health, eyesight, standing and a father’s welfare.

The sthala purana has it that a sage called Kalava was afflicted with leprosy and worshipped the nine grahas, who relieved him of it. The devas took the view that the grahas had gone beyond their office in doing so, and Brahma is said to have cursed the nine to carry the same affliction themselves.

The nine are then said to have come to this stretch of the delta and worshipped Sivan until the curse was lifted, and to have been told to stay here and give darshan together. That is the reason offered for the unusual arrangement inside: the Sun stands in the sanctum with the other eight around him, instead of standing in a group of nine at the edge of a Sivan temple as he does everywhere else.

The temple is generally assigned to the Chola period, and the older name of the settlement — Kulottunga Cholapuram — carries a Chola king’s name. The nine-temple circuit as it is walked today is a settled local custom of the delta rather than something laid down in a single early text.

Suriyan stands in the sanctum with Usha and Pratyusha. This is the only one of the nine where the graha himself is the presiding deity; at the other eight he is a shrine inside a Sivan temple.

The remaining eight grahas have separate shrines of their own set around the inner court, each turned towards the Sun, with Guru Bhagavan facing him directly. Kol Theertha Vinayagar stands near the entrance, and Kasi Viswanathar and Visalakshi have a shrine within the same enclosure.

A tank called the Surya Pushkarani lies outside the wall. The whole complex is small, and can be walked through in half an hour when there is no queue.

Sunday is the day here, and Rathasapthami in Thai — kept as the Sun’s own day — is the largest gathering of the year.

Because each graha has his own shrine and his own weekday, the temple has a different queue on each day of the week, and the day a planet changes sign brings people to that planet’s shrine in particular.

Also called

Kulottunga Cholapuram, Suriyanar Temple

Period

Chola period, with later additions

Reaching it

Suryanar Koil is beside Aduthurai, about 15 km from Kumbakonam on the road towards Mayiladuthurai. Kumbakonam is the nearest large railway station, and Kanjanur is about 2 km away, so the two are almost always taken together.

• Thiruvidaimarudur Mahalingaswamy Temple 1.6 km · Saiva
• Kanjanur Agneeswarar Temple 2.2 km · Saiva
• Thirunageswaram Naganathaswamy Temple 2.5 km · Saiva
• Oppiliappan Temple, Thirunageswaram 3.3 km · Vaishnava
• Adi Kumbeswarar Temple 7.9 km · Saiva
• Sarangapani Temple, Kumbakonam 7.9 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

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