SRINIZINE

Māsilāmanīswarar temple is a temple dedicated to Lord Shiva in Thirumullaivoyal, a small town near Chennai.

I visited the Masilamaniswarar temple on a cloudy evening two weeks back. This medium sized temple is located in a calm place away from the hustle and bustle of city traffic. Some special poojas were going on when I visited the temple, later a serene old man sang some beautiful Tamil devotional songs. The sanctity of this temple is such that some great Tamil saints like Sambandar, Arunagirinathar and Ramalinga Adigalar visited this temple and composed songs in praise of the Lord. If you are well versed in Tamil, you can check out the songs in this website.

There is an interesting legend associated with the temple. Once upon a time lived brothers Vaanan and Onan in a forest in Thondai region of ancient Southern India. The brothers were demons of the ‘kurumbar’ variety, who took great pleasure in troubling people. They stole, killed, plundered people living near the forest. The people reported to King Thondaiman, and described him the atrocities committed by the demons. The king pacified the people, and with the intention of defeating the demons proceeded towards the forest seated on his elephant with a huge army following him.

Fight ensued, but the demons were unbeatable as they were devotees of Lord Bhairava, the lord of death. The demons destroyed the whole army, and the king retreated. That was a dense forest full of mullai shrubs which made it difficult for the elephant to navigate through the forest. The king desperately cut down the shrubs with his sword.

Suddenly, there was a splash of blood, and the king found that the blood was oozing out from what looked like a Shiva Linga that he accidentally cut down. The king felt deeply sorry and prayed to Lord Shiva. Shiva appeared before him, accepted his apologies, and in addition, promised him that he will send his bull Nandi to help him fight the demons.

The king once again invaded the forest, and this time with the help of Nandi, destroyed the demons and set people free. The king constructed a temple on the spot where he destroyed the demons, and this temple is what we know as the Masilamaniswarar temple in Thirumullaivoyal. In fact, Thirumullaivāyil is so named because it was once a dense forest full of mullai shrubs (Jasminum auriculatum).

Thirumullaivoyal is a western suburb of Chennai in the Chennai Tiruvallur Highway, between Ambattur and Avadi. The place is about 20 km from Chennai and is easily accessible by road and rail. Check out the map below for exact location of this temple. My visit to this temple two weeks back was my first ever visit here even though I’ve been living in the nearby Ambattur for the past eighteen years!

View Masilamaneeswarar Temple in a larger map

More information about this temple at the Wikipedia.