Lord KABALISWARAR with Peacock Ambal.

KABALISWARAR temple has been one of the real landmarks of our Singara Chennai city. I had visited the temples many times, but each with visit of mine to this temple; I am overawed by the structural beauty of this magnificent temple. I had recently gone to this temple along with my parents had a great darshan of the Lord Siva and Ambal. After darshan of the main deities we can actually have a view of all the gopurams by standing in one of the corners of the outers praharams (Outer passages of the temple). This corner of the temple passage has a temple bell over it.

There are other small temples around the main temple. I was actually surprised to see one Siva temple containing a peacock statue near it. Usually one would be able to see Nandhi (bull) standing in front of Lord Siva. I then read the history of the temple written on the main door of the temple. The story goes something like this- "Long time back when Lord Siva and Parvati were having a chat, Parvati noticed a beautiful peacock, was enticed in its beauty and therefore did not listen to what Lord Siva was speaking. This angered the Lord and he cursed the goddess to be re-born as a peacock in her next birth. Goddess asked the Lord to forgive her and then a cooled down Lord told her to take the next birth as a peacock and worship Lord at a particular place. So the goddess took the avatar as a peacock and worshiped the Lord. The Lord pleased by goddess devotion gave her darshan and mukti". So the name of this place where this temple is situated was named Mylapore (Peacock City). So next time when you guyz go to the temple you can worship the Lord and Ambal knowing the superb history behind it.

I also visited the Vellishwarar (Silver Lord Siva) temple which is situated right behind the Kabali Temple. This temple has Lord Siva in a silver Lingam form, a real treat to watch. This temple also contains Lord Sarpashwarar (head of a lion and body of a snake) and Lord Sukrashwarar (Lord Sukran worshiping Lord Siva). This temple is a must watch especially on Sunday 4.30 PM to 6 PM when we have Rahu kalam pooja for Lord Sarpashwarar. I hope to visit the famous Chitra Kulam nearby the Kabali temple. So next time you are in Chennai, don’t miss these superb temples and also the huge pond at the back of the Kabali temple.