Santhome
Cathedral Basilica
Santhome Cathedral Basilica is situated on the southern
tip of Marina in Chennai. It is a towering basilica
built on the spot where St. Thomas (an apostle of Jesus
Christ) was buried. It is the church of the Archbishop
of Chennai - pastoral head of the Catholic community
in the region.
Santhome Cathedral Basilica is built in Gothic Style.
Beside, the beauty of its rising spire it has a brilliant
stained glass depiction of St. Thomas' encounter with
the resurrected Christ. One can find some relics and
a fragment of bone of the saint in the crypt below the
altar. It offers excellent views from the 55m steeple.
St. Thomas Mount church
St. Thomas Mount church is located in Chennai near Meenambakkam
Airport, it was built in 1523 by the Portuguese. It
is a small relic-filled Church, which stands at the
summit of the 300 foot high St. Thomas Mount.
It is believed that an apostle of Christ preached atop
the hill here and is said to have been killed on this
mount. Among the relics, The Holy Lady and The Child
and 'Our Lady of Expectations' and the 'Bleeding Cross'
are believed have been made by the saint himself. Above
the altar is a painting of the Madonna considered to
be the work of St. Luke. A flight of 160 steps leads
up to the summit of the Mount.
Kapaleeswara (also spelt as Kapeeleshwara):-
temple is situated in Mylapore, a suburb of Chennai.
The main deity, Lord Shiva, is worshipped as "Kapaleeswara"
and the Goddess as "Karpagambal". The temple
is very famous and attracts thousands of devotees especially
during festival days. The entrance Gopuram rises magnificently
to a height of about 120 feet with a profusion of sculptured
images depicting incidents from the various 'puranic'
legends. There is a large tank in front of the temple.
The outer courtyard is adorned with the bronze images
of the 63 'Nayanmars' (Saivite saints). Some scholars
cast doubt as to the age of the present building as
the architecture and the images in this temple point
to a period of about 300 years ago. They believe that
the original temple had been in the Santhome area near
the sea as recent archaeological excavations in that
area point to the presence of a temple during that period.
The original temple was submerged under the sea and
the current temple structure was a later construction.
There are separate sannadhis for several deities such
as Vinayaka, Annamalaiyar, Muruga, and Saneeswara. There
are several other deities such as Durga, Dakshinamurti,
Chandikeswara located within the main Sannadhis of Kapaleeswara
and Karpagambal.
Mention of this temple in the old devotional hymns
by Hindu Nayanmars who lived during the 7th century
is evident that this temple had been in existence for
more than a thousand years.
The bronze idols of the 63 Nayanmars, the saints who
were devotees of Lord Shiva are placed in the Kapaleeswara
Sannadhi. Every year the Arubathimoovar festival is
conducted and the 63 Nayanmars are taken in procession.
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Legends Associated With The Temple
There are many legends associated with this temple.
Once Goddess Parvati was distracted during her daily
ritual by a beautiful peacock dancing at a distance.
Lord Shiva in order to make her realise the importance
of total devotion turned her into a peahen and sent
her to the earth. The peahen arrived at this temple
and started a penance in order to prove her devotion.
After a long and severe penance the Lord took her
back into his fold. As Goddess Parvati was living
in this place as a pea-hen, the place came to be
known as 'Mayil-puri' (Mayil means pea-hen in Tamil)
which was later anglicised to Mylapore. |
There was a great devotee of Lord Shiva by the name
of Shivanesa Chettiar in Mylapore. One day his eloved
daughter was bitten by a cobra and died. Shivanesa Chettiar
was heart broken. After the cremation of the body he
collected the ashes and kept them in an urn in his house.
When Thirugnana Sambanthar visited this temple in the
course of his pilgrimage he heard about the sadness
that befell the devotee of Lord Shiva. He asked the
father to bring the urn of ashes to him. When he sprinkled
some water from the temple tank onto the urn everybody
was amazed to see the daughter walking into the room
alive.
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Parthasarathy
Temple
The temple is referred to in the ancient Vaishnavite
works of the Alwar saints. The temple covers an area
of 1.5 acres and one can see the inscriptions, which
date back to 8th century Pallavas (Tondaiman Chakravarti).
A number of fine carvings adorn the temple. The present
structure of the temple is largely based on the renovations
and additions carried out in the 16th century.
Parthasarathy Temple situated at Triplicane is one of
the two famous and ancient shrines in Chennai. The temple
is said to have existed 1200 years ago. Triplicane is
also known as "Thiruvallikeni", one of the
108 Divya Desams, renovated by a king of Pallava Dynasty.
"Brindaranya" is the traditional Puranic name
of Thiruvallikeni. While dedicated to Vishnu in his
incarnation as Krishna, the Parthasarathy Temple at
Triplicane enshrines images of the five incarnations
of Vishnu including that of a wounded Krishna. The deity
is called "Parthasarathy", as he was the charioteer
(sarathy) for Arjuna (Parththan) during the great Kurukshetra
war described in the Mahabarata (also spelt as Mahabharatha)
epic. Lord Krishna undertook not to take part in the
war but agreed to be the charioteer to Arjuna. Bhishma,
from the opposing side in order to break Krishna's undertaking,
shot arrows at his face. Devotees believe that the marks
on the face of the idol in this temple are the wounds
sustained in that war. Krishna after the war came here
to rest next to a beautiful pond full of 'Alli' flowers
thus giving this place the Tamil name 'Thiru-alli-kerny'.
The Vijayanagar rulers made several endowments to the
temple. The gold image of Tirumaal Nachiyaar, adorning
the chest of Venkatakrishnar is a rare work of art.
This shrine is considered equivalent to Tirupati. In
the temple complex there are shrines dedicated to Sri
Ranganatha, Venkatakrishnaswamy, Sri Rama with his brothers
and his consort Sita, and Sri Andal. Sri Hanumar can
be seen facing the shrine of Sri Rama. The Azhwars and
Archaryas of the Vaishnavite tradition are given pride
of place in this temple. The important festivals conducted
here are the Brahmotsavam in the month of Chithirai
(April/May), Thiruaadipooram held for 10 days in the
month of Aadi (July/August), and in the month of Markazhi
(December-January) the festival called Neerattu Utsavam
culminating with Thirukkalyanam.
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