Thiruvarur Thyagaraja Temple

Deity

Thyagaraja (Veedhi Vidangar) with Kamalambal and Vanmikanathar

Where

Tamil Nadu · 10.77N 79.64E

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

Chandran

Visited for

The Ajapa Natanam sthalam and the birthplace of the Trinity of Carnatic music, with the largest temple car in Tamil Nadu. Thyagaraja’s Panguni festival is its great day.

The story Thiruvarur is known by is Manu Needhi Cholan’s. A calf was crushed under the wheel of the crown prince’s chariot; the cow is said to have pulled the bell of justice at the palace gate, and the king, hearing the case, had his own son put under the wheel in the same street. Sivan is said to have stopped it and restored both.

The Thyagaraja here dances the Ajapa Natanam — a dance kept not to a drum but to the rhythm of breathing. The form is Somaskanda, Sivan with Uma and the child Skanda together, and the utsava murti is one of the seven Vidangar images of the delta, Vidhividangar.

Sundarar’s life is bound to this temple: the sthala purana has it that Paravai Nachiyar, whom he married here, shut him out, and that Sivan himself went as a messenger between them.

Thiruvarur is a Tevaram Paadal Petra Sthalam and one of the largest temple enclosures in the delta, with Chola work at the core and later prakarams around it.

The town is the birthplace of the three composers usually called the Trinity of Carnatic music — Tyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar and Syama Sastri — and the houses are still shown.

The temple car is the largest in Tamil Nadu, and moving it through the streets at the Panguni festival is an operation the whole district takes part in.

The Kamalalayam tank outside the walls is among the largest temple tanks anywhere, with steps on all four sides.

Inside there are several prakarams and more than one complete temple: the Thyagaraja shrine, the Vanmikanathar shrine with a linga formed of an anthill, the Achaleswarar shrine and the Kamalambal shrine each have their own enclosure.

The Devasriya mandapam and the long pillared halls carry a great deal of Chola and later sculpture, and the painted ceiling panels in parts of the complex are worth the detour.

The Panguni Brahmotsavam with the Aazhi Ther is the great festival, and the day the car is drawn fills the town.

Thiruvathirai in Margazhi, Maha Sivaratri and the Aadi Pooram at the Kamalambal shrine are the other heavy days.

Also called

Thyagarajaswamy Temple, Aaroor

Period

Chola at the core, with large later enclosures

Reaching it

Thiruvarur is about 55 km east of Thanjavur and 25 km from Nagapattinam. Thiruvarur Junction is the nearest railway station and is close to the temple.

• Thirupugalur Agneeswarar Temple 7.4 km · Saiva
• Ettukudi Murugan Temple 7.7 km · Murugan
• Thiruvirkudi Veerateswarar Temple 10.1 km · Saiva
• Sowriraja Perumal Temple, Thirukkannapuram 10.4 km · Vaishnava
• Sikkal Singaravelan Temple 15.5 km · Murugan
• Koothanur Maha Saraswathi Temple 17.8 km · Sakta (Amman)

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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