Thenari Madhyaranya
shiva temple
Compiled by
P.R.Ramachander
This is one
of very
important Shiva temples of
Kerala ,It is believed that Once Lord Parsurama did great penance addressing Lord Shiva and when he came before him, Lord Parasurama wanted the
God to come to Kerala , the land he reclaimed from the sea. The very pleased
Lord Shiva gave him 108 Shiva Lingas and requested him to consecrate them all
over Kerala .This temple is
believed to be one of those temples.
Another legend about this temple is interesting. It seems once Lord
Vishnu and Lord Brahma quarreled with
each other claiming superiority over each other,. At that time Lord Shiva appeared before them in a
luminous form and wanted them to find
out his head and feet. Lord Vishnu took the form of a boar and went on digging
but could not find the feet of Lord Shiva and came back and accepted defeat. But Lord Brahma came back
and told a lie that he has been able to
see the head of Lord Shiva. The infuriated Lord Shiva cursed him
and Lord Brahma lost his power of creation. When all the world of devas went and appealed to Lord Shiva, He
directed Lord Brahma to this temple . He
told Lord Brahma that whosoever worships
him in this temple will be purified of
sins committed by him in several births .Lord Brahma along with Indra,
Goddess Saraswathi and the eight guardians of directions went to this temple , did penance and got back his
power of creation.,The Eight guardians of directions were asked to
consecrate a shiva Linga in their name in eight directions of this temple.These
are called Indresan, Yamesan ,
Nirutheesan , Varunesan ,Maruthesan
,Thanathesan and Eesanesan.All
these lingas are within one of half km from this main temple of Mahyarayeswara. There
is a small well inside the temple called
Agnikundam
There is
another story connecting this temple with Lord Sri Rama ,It seems from Rameswaram on their way back to Ayodhya , Sri Rama, Lakshmana and Siita
took rest at Theneri .They took
rested in a rocky area which is now called Shangu chakra para. On
these rocks even today big and small pits on the rock .People
believe that these are the places where
the huge monkeys took rest and the depressions are created by their buttocks. While here it seems Goddess Sita felt thirsty .When Lakshmana sent an arrow on the
land only mud water came out and when
Rama send an arrow pure dinkable water came out. Devotees believe that Ganges river came like a spring
there. There is a stone in the
Madhyaranya temple on which Gayathri manthra is inscribed ,Devotees believe
that Rama sat on this stone to worship Lord Shiva. There is also a well preserved Rama Temple in
Theneri village where the spring created by Rama called Sri Ganga Theertha is
preserved,
It seems during the conquest of Tipu Sultan , this temple was destroyed and
this linga was cut by his sword. Even today the cut mark could be seen on the
main Linga. The local people of
Thenari repaired and rebuilt the temple and the
consecration was done again in 2005.Apart from the main Linga, the temple also has sub temples
dedicated to Lord Subrahmanya, Thirukumuzhi
ammanand Saptha Mathas., Kasi Viswanatha, Ganesa, Lord Ayyappa with Porna and
Pushkala and Lord Maha Vishnu.The door of the Saptha Mathas temple is opened
only once in a year on the deepavali
day and poojas performed. Out
side the temple there is a SArpa Kavu(serpent temple) and a temple tank called
Brahma Kundam . Arudra Darsanam and Maha Shivarathri are celebrated in this temple besides special
poojas on Pradosham day.
The temple is 15 km from Palakkad town and is
near Elapulli on the palakkad –Pollachi road. The buses
from Palghat to Kozhinjampara
touches this temple . The temple is open from 6 Am to 12 non and 5 Pm to 7.30 Pm . the temple phone number is 0491-2584321
