102. THARAMANGALAM

ILAMEESWARAR TEMPLE

Distance: 

Shiva: Ilameeswarar

Amman: Thaiyalnayaki

Speciality:

This is a small temple.

This temple is very close to the big Tharamangalam Kailasanadhar temple.

Apart from Lord Ilameeswarar, Thaiyalnayaki and Nandhi there are sannidhis of Sooriyan, Baalavidhya Ganapathy, Murugar, Bhairavar and Dhakshinamurthy inside the mandapam.

The deities which were originall in the Prahara are now kept inside the temple.

White rice is the main food used for Nivedhana here.

History:

Tharamangalam is the place where Mahavishnu offered his sister to Lord Shiva is marriage. The Lord is a young youth as a bridegroom. Therefore he is called as Ilameeswarar. Since, Parvathi was given in marriage Taarai Vaarthal this place is called Tharamangalam. Since Lord Shiva married a virgin lady (mangai) it was called as Mangainagaram.

This place was ruled by Gettimudhali. This place was a dense forest named Tharugavam. Gettimudhali came here for hunting in the forest. He did not hunt any animal that day. He wanted to relax and he tried to tie the horse to a tree. The horse jumped to another place. Again he tried to tie the horse to the same tree. The horse jumped again. This went on for 2 to 3 times. Gettimudhali wanted to find what was there and why the horse was jumping. He asked his men to dig the place and they found a Shiva Linga there. He was amazed and did not know what to do. Some intuition told him that it would be a blessing if he could build a temple for the Lord here.