Tamil Nadu Temples Kapaleeshwarar Temple

Tamil Nadu Temples - Kapaleeshwarar Temple

The Kapaleeshwarar Kovil is located 2 km from the shores of the Bay of Bengal. It is located in the erstwhile hamlet called Mylapore (now a bustling, congested suburb). It houses Lord Kapaleeswarar (Lord Shiva) and goddess Karpagambal (Parvati).

There are 2 theories related to the history of this temple. One says that the original temple was located close to the shore and the other says that the old temple stood at the same location as it is now. A few believe that both are true. This is atrributed to the sea receding over centuries.

The apostle St. Thomas, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus is supposed to have come to Mylapore. It is to commomorate this that the Portuguese built the San Thome church after destroying the Kapaleeswaraar temple that stood at its place. The present Kapaleeswarar temple was built 300-400 years ago at a different location (see external links).

During the summer months of April-May Kapaleeswarar temple celebrates an annual temple festival for 9 days, where the decorated idols of Kapaleeswarar and Karpagambal are brought outside in a procession (clockwise) around the temple and water tank on the 4 major streets called Mada Veethi in different Vahanams (sanskrit word meaning vehicles).

Some of the noteworthy processions of these 9 days are: On the third day morning is the 'Athigara Nandhi' (silver sitting bull), On fifth midnight 'Rishaba Vahanam' (silver bull), on Seventh day morninng is 'Ther' (40' tall cart pulled by people), on the eighth day is the most important procession of all called 'Arupathimoovar', named after the 63 Nayanmars who prayed to lord shiva and wrote verses praising him. Here all the 63 idols would follow Kapaleeswarar on the procession.

Since people come to see the temple and the processions during the Arupathimoovar from across the state and being the hottest period of the year the locals of Mylapore give buttermilk for the visitors and over the years this festival as started to get associated with moru, the tamil word for buttermilk and now has got the slang Arupathimoru.

The complex has shrines devoted to Narthana Vinayakar (dancing Ganesha), Singara Velar (AKA: Karthikeya, Murugan) with his consorts Valli and Deivayanai, main deity Lord Kapaleeswarar (Lord Shiva) and his consort Karpagambal (Parvati).

There are also smaller shrines inside the temple complex for Palani Andavar (Karthikeya's incarnation), Vaiyilar Nayanar (one of the 63 Nayanmar), Annamalaiyar (Lord Shiva) with his consort Unnamalai Ammai (Parvati), Sundereswarar (Lord Shiva), Jagatheeswarar (Lord Shiva), Kapaleeswarar is being worshipped by karpagambal in the form of a peahen, Thirugnana Sambanthar and Shaneeshwarar (saturn).