Kapaleeshwarar temple
Encyclopedia
Shiva
Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...
located in Mylapore
Mylapore
Mylapore is a cultural hub and neighborhood in the southern part of the city of Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, India. Earlier, Mylapore used to be called Vedapuri....
, a suburb of Chennai
Chennai
Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
in the India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n state of Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...
. The form of Shiva's wife Parvati
Parvati
Parvati is a Hindu goddess. Parvati is Shakti, the wife of Shiva and the gentle aspect of Mahadevi, the Great Goddess...
worshipped at this temple is called Karpagambal (from Tamil, "Goddess of the Wish-Yielding Tree"). The temple was built around the 7th century CE.
According to the Puranas
Puranas
The Puranas are a genre of important Hindu, Jain and Buddhist religious texts, notably consisting of narratives of the history of the universe from creation to destruction, genealogies of kings, heroes, sages, and demigods, and descriptions of Hindu cosmology, philosophy, and geography.Puranas...
, Shakti
Shakti
Shakti from Sanskrit shak - "to be able," meaning sacred force or empowerment, is the primordial cosmic energy and represents the dynamic forces that are thought to move through the entire universe in Hinduism. Shakti is the concept, or personification, of divine feminine creative power, sometimes...
worshipped Shiva in the form of a peacock, which is why the vernacular name Mylai was given to the area that developed around the temple - mayil is Tamil for "peacock". The original idol of this temple is kept in Jina Kanchi ( Mel-Chitamoor) near Tiruttani.
Etymolgy
The temple's name is derived from the words kapalam (head) and eeshwarar an alias of ShivaShiva
Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...
. According to the Puranas, during the meeting of Brahma and Shiva at top of Mount Kailash
Mount Kailash
Mount Kailash is a peak in the Gangdisê Mountains, which are part of the Himalayas in Tibet...
Brahma failed to show the due respect to Shiva. Due to this, Shiva plucked of one of Brahma's heads (kapalams). In an act of penance, Brahma came down to the site of Mylapore and installed a Lingam
Lingam
The Lingam is a representation of the Hindu deity Shiva used for worship in temples....
to please Shiva.This place is known as Sukra puri, Veda puri and has so many other names including “Kailaye Mayilai and Mayilaye Kayilai “which means this place is equal to kailash. Goddess Karpagambal due to a curse became a peacock and did penance here to get back her original personality. Lord Muruga received the spear (Sakthi vel) for Sura Samharam from goddess Parvathi here. Brahma had worshipped here to get rid his ego back his power to create. The four Vedas have Worshipped here. Sukracharya worshiped the Lord here and got back his lost eye. Lord Sri Rama has worshiped here and won the war against Ravana and brought back Sita Devi from SriLanka. The daughter of Sivanesa Chettiar Angam Poompavai got her lost life here. Vaayilar Nayanar a fakir attained salvation here and mylapore is also the birth place of Thiruvalluvar who wrote Thirukkural. In Thevaram special mention is made about the beautiful Madaveedhi as “Malgun Mathri Thavazhum Maada Veedhi Mylappil Ullar”. Thiruganana Sambandar, Auunagirinathar have sung the Glory of Karpagambal, Singara Velar. The 10 day festival during March / April is a treat to watch and Arubathu Moovar festival is attended by lakhs of devotees every year.
History
Pallava
The Pallava dynasty was a Tamil dynasty which ruled the northern Tamil Nadu region and the southern Andhra Pradesh region with their capital at Kanchipuram...
s. This view is based on references to the temple in the hymns of the Nayanmars (which, however, place it by a sea shore).Thirugnanasambandar's 6th song in Poompavaipathikam and Arunagirinathar's 697th song in Thirumylai Thirupugazh, make clear reference to the Kapaleeswarar temple being located on the seashore in Mylapore. The architecture of the temple, however, appears to be 300–400 years old. The scholarly view that accounts for the discrepancies is that the original temple was built on the shore at the location of the current Santhome Church
Santhome Church
San Thome Basilica is a Roman Catholic minor basilica in Santhome, in the city of Chennai , India. It was built in the 16th century by Portuguese explorers, and rebuilt again with the status of a cathedral by the British in 1893. The British version still stands today...
but was destroyed by the Portuguese, and the current temple (which is 1-1.5 km from the shore) was built by the Vijayanagar
Vijayanagara Empire
The Vijayanagara Empire , referred as the Kingdom of Bisnaga by the Portuguese, was an empire based in South Indian in the Deccan Plateau region. It was established in 1336 by Harihara I and his brother Bukka Raya I of the Yadava lineage. The empire rose to prominence as a culmination of attempts...
kings during the 16th century.
The Temple
| Kapaleeshwarar Temple | |
 Kapaleeshwarar Temple |
|
| Temple Name: | Kapaleeshwarar Temple |
|---|---|
| God Name: | Kapaleeshwarar Swamy |
| Goddess Name: | Karpagambal |
| Location: | Mylapore Mylapore Mylapore is a cultural hub and neighborhood in the southern part of the city of Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, India. Earlier, Mylapore used to be called Vedapuri.... |
| State and Country: | Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh... , India India India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world... |
Architecture
The Kapaleeshwarar temple is of typical Dravidian architecturalDravidian architecture
Dravidian architecture was a style of architecture that emerged thousands of years ago in Southern part of the Indian subcontinent or South India. They consist primarily of pyramid shaped temples called Koils which are dependent on intricate carved stone in order to create a step design consisting...
style, with the gopuram
Gopuram
A Gopuram or Gopura, is a monumental tower, usually ornate, at the entrance of any temple, especially in Southern India. This forms a prominent feature of Koils, Hindu temples of the Dravidian style. They are topped by the kalasam, a bulbous stone finial...
overpowering the street on which the temple sits. This temple is also a testimonial for the vishwakarmas
Vishwakarmas
Vishwakarma[viswa brahmin] is the term used in India for a caste of priests, engineers, architects, sculptors, temple builders and artists. The term is applied to five sub-castes; blacksmiths, carpenters, coppersmiths, goldsmiths and sculptors...
sthapathis. There are two entrances to the temple marked by the gopuram on either side. The east gopuram is about 40 m high, while the smaller western gopuram faces the sacred tank
Tank
A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...
.
Shrines
Vahanas
The vahanaVahana
Vāhana denotes the being, typically an animal or mythical entity, a particular deva is said to use as a vehicle. In this capacity, the vāhana is often called the deity's mount. Upon the partnership between the deva and his vāhana is woven much iconography and mythology...
s (Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
for "vehicles") at the temple include the bull
Bull
Bull usually refers to an uncastrated adult male bovine.Bull may also refer to:-Entertainment:* Bull , an original show on the TNT Network* "Bull" , an episode of television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation...
, Adhikaranandi, elephant
Elephant
Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...
, bandicoot
Bandicoot
Bandicoots are a group of about 20 species of small to medium-sized, terrestrial marsupial omnivores in the order Peramelemorphia.- Etymology :...
, peacock, goat
Goat
The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep as both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae. There are over three hundred distinct breeds of...
and parrot
Parrot
Parrots, also known as psittacines , are birds of the roughly 372 species in 86 genera that make up the order Psittaciformes, found in most tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three families: the Psittacidae , the Cacatuidae and the Strigopidae...
, while a golden chariot is a recent addition. Statues of the god and the goddess are seated on a vahana, which is brought in a procession around the temple while the temple band plays music. Devotees gather around the vahanas and consider it a privilege to pull / lift the God and the Goddess on the vahana.
Traditions
During Friday worship, the statue of the goddess Karpagambal is decorated with a kaasu maala, i.e., a garland made of gold coins. The famous Tamil hymns Karunai Deivame Karpagame and Karpagavalli Nin Porpadhangal Pidithen were written by poets in praise of the goddess Karpagambal. There is also a peacock and a peahenPeafowl
Peafowl are two Asiatic species of flying birds in the genus Pavo of the pheasant family, Phasianidae, best known for the male's extravagant eye-spotted tail, which it displays as part of courtship. The male is called a peacock, the female a peahen, and the offspring peachicks. The adult female...
caged inside the temple, to symbolize the tradition that Karpagambal had come in the form of peahen to plead to Kapaleeshwarar.
Festivals
There are four daily pujas: the early morning puja, the day puja, the pradosha kaala puja, and the night puja.During the Tamil month of Panguni
Tamil calendar
The Tamil calendar is a solar and sidereal Hindu calendar used in Tamil Nadu. It is also used in Pondicherry , and by the Tamil population in Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius and Sri Lanka. It is also used by Telugu speaking people in Tamil Nadu...
, the traditional brahmotsavam (annual festival) takes place when the entire neighborhood comes alive with a mela (carnival)
Mela
Mela is a Sanskrit word meaning 'gathering' or 'to meet' or a Fair. It is used in the Indian subcontinent for all sizes of gathering and can be religious, commercial, cultural or sports. In rural traditions melas or village fairs were of great importance...
-like atmosphere. Since this month corresponds to the mid-March to mid-April duration, the Kapaleeshwarar temple celebrates the nine day-long as Panguni Peruvizha (Spring festival). This festival starts with Dwajarohanam (hoisting flag in the temple), includes the therotsavam, (Tamil, ther, "car/chariot"; utsavam, "festival"), Arupathimoovar festival and concludes with the Tirukkalyanam (Marriage of Kapaleeswarar & Karpagambal).
In Brahmotsavam, the idols of Kapaleeshwarar and Karpagambal are decorated with clothes and jewels, are mounted on a vahana, and then taken around the temple and its water tank in a pradakshinam (a clockwise path when seen from above). This is repeated with different vahanas over the next nine days.
The more important of the individual pradakshinams are the Athigara Nandhi on the third day, the Rishaba Vahanam on the midnight of the fifth day, the ther (about 13 meters in height and pulled by people) on the seventh morning, and the Arupathimoovar festival on the eighth day.
The Arupathimoovar festival is the most important procession. It is named after the sixty-three Nayanmars who have attained salvation by their love & devotion to the all-compassionate Lord Shiva. All sixty-three Nayanmar idols follow the Kapaleeshwarar idol on this procession.
During the car festival, Kapaleeshwarar is depicted holding a bow while seated on a throne, with his wife Karpagambal alongside. Brahma is depicted riding the ther. The chariot is decorated with flowers and statues, and there are huge gatherings of devotees to pull the ther. The car festival of 1968 is documented in the documentary film Phantom India by Louis Malle
Louis Malle
Louis Malle was a French film director, screenwriter, and producer. He worked in both French cinema and Hollywood. His films include Ascenseur pour l'échafaud , Atlantic City , and Au revoir, les enfants .- Early years in France :Malle was born into a wealthy industrialist family in Thumeries,...
.
Arupathimoovar festival
This festival is celebrated in order to honor the SaivaiteShaivism
Shaivism is one of the four major sects of Hinduism, the others being Vaishnavism, Shaktism and Smartism. Followers of Shaivism, called "Shaivas," and also "Saivas" or "Saivites," revere Shiva as the Supreme Being. Shaivas believe that Shiva is All and in all, the creator, preserver, destroyer,...
devotees, namely the sixty-three Nayanmars. The procession is celebrated by taking the Nayanmars in a palanquin
Litter (vehicle)
The litter is a class of wheelless vehicles, a type of human-powered transport, for the transport of persons. Examples of litter vehicles include lectica , jiao [较] , sedan chairs , palanquin , Woh , gama...
that is decorated with ornaments and flowers. The Moovar Appar, Sundarar, Thirugyana Sambandar are carried in a separate palanquin. Idols of Kapaleeshwarar and Karpagambal are decorated with colorful and fragrant flowers.
The festival results in a huge gathering of devotees in Mylapore
Mylapore
Mylapore is a cultural hub and neighborhood in the southern part of the city of Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, India. Earlier, Mylapore used to be called Vedapuri....
. Lot of sweets, savories, juices and buttermilk are served to the pilgrims. At each stage of the festival an Aarti
Aarti
Aarti , also spelled arathi, aarthi is a Hindu religious ritual of worship, a form of puja, in which light from wicks soaked in ghee or camphor is offered to one or more deities...
is performed.