History, Importance, Architecture, Timings, Festival, Interesting Facts and Travel Guide of Thiruchendur Murugan Temple, Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu, India
Thiruchendur Murugan Temple, is one of the temple in six abodes Lord Murugan dedicated to Lord Murugan situated in town Tiruchendur of Thoothukudi or Tuticorin district of Tamil Nadu and located on the shores of Bay of Bengal. Temple is also well known as Arulmigu Subramaniaswamy Temple or Jayanthipuram, one of the oldest temple of Lord Murugan. It is said that the Lord Muruga won the battle with Asura, Surapadma and then worshipped Lord Shiva in this place. When Lord Muruga – Lord Kartikeya, second son of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati came here for the defeat along with this army, he found it to be very small and ordered the celestial architect Vishwakarma to expand this place. Earlier this place was known as Jayanthipuram.
An interesting story is associated with the Murugan temple and Dutch East India company. Dutch had rule over this temple from 1646 to 1648 and finally freed the temple on orders from the Naik ruler. Dutch ruler theft the idol of the 2 utsava murthis made of an alloy named Shanmukhar while leaving. During their travel in sea, they faces with heavy storm and realised their mistake of stealing the idol, thus the dropped the idol in the middle of the sea. Then Lord Murugan appeared in a dream to Vadamaliyappa Pillai and order to revealed the place in the sea where the idol had been abandoned.
The exact time period of temple construction was not known but it is said that it is more than 1000 years old temple and various great ruler of South India like Pallavas, Pandyas, Cheras had renovated in their rule. There is a well filled with freshwater located near to the temple. The devotees after taking bath in the ocean they take a dip in the well to become God secure. Normally, Raja gopurams is always in the eastern side of the temples in Tamil Nadu but here in this temple it is in the western side. It is said that the Raja Gopuram was not erected on the eastern side since the sea is very close to the eastern side. The main sanctum sanctorum of the temple is the house to the deity of Lord Murugan in a standing posture alongside Shivalingas, which is a throwback to the legend of the Lord worshipping his father in this place. The miracle of this temple is that even temple is just 200 mtrs from sea shore, it is never flooded or even during the tsunami.
The gopurams is a nine storeyed, 137 feet height, to indicate that it is 9 storeys there are nine Kalasams (copper pots) at the top of the Gopuram.
The festivals like Vaikasi Visagam during May- June, Avani festival during August – September, Skanda Sasti Festival during October – November is very well celebrated with millions of participants every year.
How to reach Thiruchendur Murugan Temple, Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu, India
Even Thoothukudi is one of major town and district place of Tamil Nadu along with pilgrimage centre of South India and home to Thiruchendur Murugan Temple and other sacred place. It is very well connected with all major cities of Tamil Nadu and India via Road, Air and Rail network. Thoothukudi has airport and major railway terminal which are corrected with all major cities of India. Thoothukudi is located at just 51 km from Tirunelveli, 135 km from Kanyakumari, 151 km from Madurai, 200 km from Thiruvananthapuram, 210 km from Kollam, 285 km from Trichy, 317 km from Kochi, 600 km from Chennai.
