Saiva · Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu
Thiruvenkadu Swetharanyeswarar Temple
திருவெண்காடு சுவேதாரண்யேஸ்வரர் கோயில்
Swetharanyeswarar (Sivan) and Brahma Vidya Ambal with Budha Bhagavan
NavagrahaEducationGeneral
The temple in short
- Deity
- Swetharanyeswarar (Sivan) and Brahma Vidya Ambal with Budha Bhagavan
- Where
- Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu · 11.17N 79.78E
- 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
- Budhan
- Visited for
- The Budhan sthalam, with the Agni, Surya and Chandra theerthams. Wednesday is its day; visited for study, speech, nerves and a settled business.
The sthala purana
Tradition, as it is told at the temple
Swetharanyam means the white forest, and the sthala purana takes the name from Sweta, a sage who did penance here. He is said to have been marked for death at a fixed hour and to have been kept alive by Sivan when the hour came.
The fiercer story of the place is the ending of the asura Maruthuvasuran, for which Sivan is said to have taken the Aghora form. Aghoramurthy is worshipped here as a deity in his own right, which few temples do.
Budhan is said to have worshipped Sivan at Thiruvenkadu and to have been given his standing among the nine grahas, and that is why the circuit sends a family here for Mercury.
What is recorded
Documented history
Thiruvenkadu is a Tevaram Paadal Petra Sthalam, sung by the early Saiva saints.
It is best known outside the delta for its bronzes. A group of Chola bronzes found at Thiruvenkadu — among them a Nataraja, an Ardhanarishvara and a Rishabhavahanar — is held in the Thanjavur Art Gallery and is among the most reproduced Chola metalwork anywhere.
What there is to see
Description
Three tanks belong to the temple: the Agni, Surya and Chandra theerthams. The Agni theertham is the one immediately outside, and the other two lie a short walk away.
Swetharanyeswarar is the moolavar, with Brahma Vidya Ambal in her own shrine. Budhan has a shrine in the prakaram, and Aghoramurthy stands in a separate sannidhi that is opened for his own worship.
The prakarams are broad and mostly open, so the temple reads as a large walled enclosure rather than a dense complex.
The temple year
The days it is fullest
Wednesday is the day, and the Wednesdays of Aadi and Thai are the fullest.
Aghoramurthy’s worship draws people on his own days, and the temple keeps the usual Saiva round of pradosham, Sivaratri and the Margazhi mornings.
Getting there, and what else it is called
- Also called
- Swetharanyam, Budhan Sthalam
- Period
- Chola period, with later additions
- Reaching it
- Thiruvenkadu is about 25 km from Mayiladuthurai and roughly 6 km from Poompuhar, near the coast. Mayiladuthurai is the nearest railway station; Keezhperumpallam is about 6 km away and is taken in the same trip.
Where it is
Others within reach
Nearest first, by straight-line distance
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
A contribution carries a name, so a reader knows whose account it came from. That is why it needs an account, and it is the only reason.
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.