Thirunallar Darbaranyeswarar Temple

Deity

Darbaranyeswarar (Sivan) and Praneswari Ambal with Saneeswara Bhagavan

Where

Karaikal, Puducherry · 10.92N 79.79E

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

Sani

Visited for

The Sani sthalam where Nala was freed of Saturn’s hold; the Nala theertham is bathed in before darshan. Saturday, and above all Sani peyarchi, fill the town; visited through Sade sati and Ashtama Sani.

The sthala purana here is the story of Nala, king of Nishadha. Sani is said to have entered him and held him for years: he lost his kingdom at dice, left his wife Damayanti in the forest and wandered under another name and another face.

Nala is said to have come at last to Darbaranyam, the forest of darbha grass, bathed in the tank now called the Nala theertham and worshipped Sivan here — and Sani is said to have let him go at that spot. That is why people still bathe in the Nala theertham before going in for darshan, and why the temple is the first one named when Sani is read as heavy in a chart.

Sani is approached here as a deity to be asked rather than an affliction to be fought off, which is the tone the priests keep and the reason the sesame-oil lamp is the usual offering.

Thirunallar is a Tevaram Paadal Petra Sthalam and is counted among the Saptha Vidanga sthalams, the seven temples of the delta that share the Thyagaraja form of Sivan; the vidangar here is Nagavidangar.

The temple is in Karaikal, which is part of Puducherry rather than Tamil Nadu, so it is administered separately from its neighbours a few kilometres away.

The Nala theertham is a large tank a short walk from the temple, and the bath there is part of the visit for most people rather than an extra.

Darbaranyeswarar is the moolavar, with Praneswari Ambal in her own shrine. The Saneeswara sannidhi is in the prakaram, and the queue for it is separate from the queue for the moolavar.

There is a long entrance corridor and a broad outer court, both of which are needed: on a peyarchi day the crowd is measured in lakhs and the whole town is given over to it.

Saturday is the day, and the Saturdays of Aadi, Purattasi and Thai are heavy.

Sani peyarchi — the day Saturn changes sign, once in about two and a half years — is the single largest day of the temple’s calendar, and special trains and bus services are run for it. Sani Jayanti and Sani amavasai are the other big days.

Also called

Darbaranyam, Saneeswaran Temple

Period

Chola period, with later additions

Reaching it

Thirunallar is about 5 km west of Karaikal town, in the Karaikal district of Puducherry. Karaikal is the nearest railway station; Nagapattinam is about 20 km away and Kumbakonam about 45 km.

• Koothanur Maha Saraswathi Temple 15.3 km · Sakta (Amman)
• Thirupugalur Agneeswarar Temple 16.6 km · Saiva
• Thirukkadaiyur Amirthaghateswarar Temple 16.9 km · Saiva
• Thiruvazhuvur Veerateswarar Temple 18 km · Saiva
• Sikkal Singaravelan Temple 18.9 km · Murugan
• Ettukudi Murugan Temple 19.8 km · Murugan

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?
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