Kapaleeshwarar Kovil

Excerpts from the  Parthasarathy Mudaliar Endowment lecture by Chitra Madhavan on Kapaleeshwarar kovil. Mudaliar was very closely associated with this temple and was instrumental in construction of idols/figures in the temple gopuram. He's never missed a pradosham pooja at this temple, and his final days were at Varanasi, where he did pooja for 45 days and then attained jala samadhi in the Ganges!

 

 

 The temple's name is derived from the words kapalam (head) and "eeshwarar" - when Shiva plucked one head of Brahma. Later on Brahma did a penance and installed this lingam to please Shiva. And the other name with regard to Karpagambal is that Parvati is like the wish yielding Karpaga Tharu; and once when Parvati was not attentive to Shiva's upadesam and watching a dancing peacok, she was cursed to turn in a peacock and was instructed to worship Shiva to regain her normal form. The north east corner of the temple's block is the "Punnai Vana Nathar" shrine and we can see a representation of this legend on stone in a small Shrine under a Punnai tree (Sthala Vriksha).

 

Thiruvotriyur was a prime "Kapalika" cult town in earlier years - (The Kāpālika tradition practices the tantric form of Shaivism and these skull men carried a cranium begging bowl), and this cult might have had an influence on naming of this temple too.

 

Thiru Mayilai has been mentioned by Ptolemy, the Greek traveller as Millarpha and the seaport recorded as Mylar farm and did you know that its the birth place of Tiruvalluvar too? - The earliest Saivite saints of 7th Century, Thiru Gnana sambandar and Appar and two prominent Alwars (Peyazhwar and Thirumazhisai alwar) have all mentioned about the temple/place in their works.

 

One interesting observation was that the existing structure is not the original temple - The original 8th century shiva temple built by the pallavas was along the sea coast, referred from the hymns of Sambandar. Later on they say it was destroyed by the Portuguese and in that place they built the santhome church. The present temple was relocated before 350-400 years ago.

 

Amazing facts

 

1. The specialty of this temple is that it has 2 Dwajasthambams! - apart from a dwajasthambam in front of the main deity, there is one more in front of the Singaravelan sannadhi too.
2.  Vishnu Sharma taught Panchatantra to King Amarashakthi's sons (who is referred to as the king of Mylapore)
3.  The height of the sanctum of Singaravelar is a little higher than Kapaleeshwar, and the murugan sannidhi has a small opening directly. This seconds the fact that the relocation of the Kapaleeshwarar temple next to this
4.  The East Gopuram base is entirely Granite and the upper part is brick and stuttco, follows vijayanagar architecture and resembles Meenakshi amman temple gopuram.
5.  The notable sculptures in the temple gopuram include various kshetra natarajas, Heramba Ganapathy (riding a lion with multiple heads), Sage Bringhi with 3 legs, Ravana lifting Mount Kailash, Various roopams of Dakshinamurthy, Meenakshi Sundareshwar wedding, Kannapa nayanar story, Chandikeswarar story (who is the body guard of shiva and the head of his Ganas).
6.  In the Thirugnana sambandar shrine near the Dwajasthambam you can see his idol along with Poompavai. Sivanesa Chettiar, Poompavai's father wanted to get her married to Sambandar, but before he arrives, she dies. Her ashes are in the urn, during the 13 day period and Sambandar sings a pathigam to redeem her life back.
7.  Vaayila Nayanar (one who cant speak) - another saivite saint who built a golden temple for shiva in his heart to perform pooja, attained salvation here..