Vaitheeswaran Koil

Deity

Vaidyanatha Swamy and Thaiyalnayaki with Selva Muthukumaraswamy and Angaraka Bhagavan

Where

Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu · 11.19N 79.66E

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

Sevvai

Visited for

The Angaraka (Sevvai) sthalam and the healer’s temple: thiruchandu urundai and the Siddhamirtham tank are taken for long illness and skin complaints. Tuesday is its day, and it is the first stop for Sevvai dosham.

The sthala purana has it that Angaraka — Sevvai — was struck with leprosy and came here to worship, and that Sivan as Vaidyanatha, the physician, relieved him and gave him his place among the nine grahas. The temple’s own offering, the thiruchandu urundai, a small ball of sacred ash and sandal, is given out in memory of that medicine.

A second story belongs to the Ramayana. Jatayu, cut down by Ravana while trying to stop him, is said to have fallen here, and Rama to have performed the last rites at the pit still called the Jatayu Kundam.

The Murugan of this temple, Selva Muthukumaraswamy, is the one Parvathi is said to have armed with the vel before the war with Surapadman, and he is worshipped here in his own right rather than as a shrine in the corner.

Vaitheeswaran Koil is a Tevaram Paadal Petra Sthalam. Its older name, Pullirukkuvelur, is the one the hymns use.

The village is also the home of the Naadi palm-leaf astrologers, whose shops stand along the temple street. That is a local trade of long standing and it is not part of the temple, which is worth saying because the two are often described as one thing.

The tank is the Siddhamirtham, on the north side, and most people sprinkle or bathe there before going in.

Vaidyanathaswamy stands in the sanctum. Thaiyalnayaki has a separate shrine and holds a bowl of oil; the oil and the thiruchandu urundai are what the long queue is for.

Angaraka has his own shrine in the prakaram, and the Selva Muthukumaraswamy shrine is large enough to be a temple in itself, with its own hall and its own crowd on Sashti days.

Tuesday is the day, and the Tuesdays of Aadi and Thai are the fullest. The day Sevvai changes sign fills the Angaraka shrine from before dawn.

Skanda Sashti in Aippasi is kept for Muthukumaraswamy, and the annual Brahmotsavam takes the deities through the streets.

Also called

Pullirukkuvelur, Vaidyanathaswamy Temple

Period

Chola period, with later additions

Reaching it

Vaitheeswaran Koil is on the Sirkazhi–Mayiladuthurai road, about 7 km from Sirkazhi and 25 km from Mayiladuthurai. It has a railway station of its own on the Mayiladuthurai–Chidambaram line.

• Sattainathar Temple, Sirkazhi 9.4 km · Saiva
• Mayuranathaswami Temple, Mayiladuthurai 10 km · Saiva
• Thirunangur Divya Desams (Garuda Sevai) 11 km · Vaishnava
• Thirupariyalur Veerateswarar Temple 12 km · Saiva
• Thiruvenkadu Swetharanyeswarar Temple 13.3 km · Saiva
• Thirumananjeri Kalyanasundareswarar Temple 18.1 km · Saiva

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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