Sri Nilathingal Thundathan Perumal Temple

Sri Nilathingal Thundathan Perumal Temple is 58^th of the 108 Divya Desams of Lord Vishnu situated within the temple precincts of Sri Ekambareshwarar Temple; one of the Pancha Boothasthal of Lord Shiva represents Earth.  This temple is located in Kanchipuram District, Tamil Nadu. The shrine is in the Easanya corner – north east – of the temple. This is a temple in a temple – Vishnu temple in Shiva temple. It is the one and only Divyadesams where the poojas are being done by the Saivite Preists. The place is called as Thiruneduthangadam. This temple is 1000 – 2000 years old.

Moolavar is being worshipped as “Nilatthingalthundathan” and “Chandhrasoodap Perumal” in his standing posture facing west under Purushasuktha Vimanam with his abaya Hastham. Thayar is Blessing as Ner Oruvar Illa Valli Nachiyar(Nilaatthingal Thunda thaayar).

Sri Nilathingal Thundathan Perumal Temple is one of the oldest temples situated from the date back to 600 A.D. built by the Pallava Kings; Kings of Chola Dynasty also have made abundance of contributions to this temple.  The tallest majestic Rajagopuram of this temple was built by the King of Vijayanagara Sri Krishna Devaraya.  The most attractive thousand pillars Mandap was also the contributions of Vijayanagara Kings.

History and Significance

In This Sri Nilathingal Thundathan Perumal the legend has that due to anger from Lord Siva, Goddess Parvathi took birth in the earth and was doing penance under a Mango tree ( this tree was available till 2009 after when the temple authority took the stem and continued it, the current tree is not the old one, as it came from the parts of old tree) towards Lord Siva by making the lingam with her own hand by using sand ( this lingam is the moolar in this temple), when Lord Siva saw this, he increased the temparature and heat, Goddess Parvathi seeked the help of Lord Vishu, who took the moon from Lord Siva to cool the heat and helped Goddess to continue her penance.

Since, to help Paarvathi, Sriman Narayanan took the Chandran (Moon) from Lord Shiva’s head to prevent the Lingam done by sand from Ganga river, the Perumal is called as “Nila thingal thundathan” and so the sthalam is called as “Thiru Nilathingal Thundam”.

Another legend is that during the old period when Devas reached out to Lord Vishu and requested him to bless all devas to have long life, Lord Vishu directed both Devas and Asuras to churn thiruparkadal to get the Amirtham which will help to get long life for all devas.

During this process, first it came poison who was taken by Lord Siva (this has a relation to Surutarpalli temple, refer post) and then came nector. Lord Vishu took all the nector by himself which made him very warm and his color was turned to black because of this. Lord Siva appeared before Lord Vishu and used his moon to absorb the warmness and converted the color to regular with the help of moon on top of his head, hence the perumal here is referred as Thiru Nilathingal Perumal ( since Lord Vishu got the moon color here).

Festivals

Lord bearing the light of moon, every poornima day – full moon day is a festival day in the temple. Purattasi Saturdays of September-October and Vaikunda Ekadasi in December-January are other festivals observed in the Nilathingal Thundathan Perumal Temple.

Info on the deity – Specific to the temple deity

The Moolavar of this Sthalam is Nilathingal Thundathan. He is also known as “Chandirra Chuda Perumal”. Moolavar in Standing position with adisesha on top of his head and facing in west direction. Prathyaksham for Lord Shivan.

Temple Pooja Daily Schedule

Sri Nilathingal Thundathan Perumal Temple remains open from 9:30 am to 1:30 am and 4:30 pm to 7:30 pm.

How to reach:

The Sri Nilathingal Thundathan Perumal Temple is in the first prakara of Lord Ekambaranathar temple, just a kilometer from the bus stand.