Vayalur or Kumara Vayalur, as it is also known, is a small village near Tiruchi at a distance of 12 kilometre in the western direction, which has a temple for Subramanya Swamy. As the name proclaims, Vayalur is a place awash with rice field.
The Subramanya Swamy temple at Vayalur is special in many ways. One, unlike the arupadai veedu (six abodes) of Muruga, this abode of the Lord is located on a plain landscape called ‘marutham’ in Tamil. The other being, the Lord at Vayalur gave guidelines to Saint Arunagirinadhar to sing His glory through Thiruppugazh embodying Vayalur, and initiated him into the inimitable art of composing ‘sandha kavidhai’ extempore. It is believed that Lord Muruga saved Arunagirinadhar from a suicidal fall from the tallest tower of Thiruvannamalai temple and directed him towards Vayalur for pursuing the spiritual path. After this the saint poet started singing Thiruppugazh hymns further guided by Ganapathy, called Poyya Ganapathy, of this temple. Out of the 100 songs that he sang on Vayalur Murugan only 18 have been retrieved so far.
The temple is facing east and boasts of a three-tier rajagopuram and a five-tier rajagopuram behind it, which was built before the extension of the frontal portion of the temple. At the entrance is a spacious main hall embodying the 200-year-old sacred tree (vanni maram), dwajasthambam, the goddess sannidhi and an enclosure for navagrahams. The finely sculpted statue of nandhi is seen in front of the dwajasthambham. A little away from the dwajasthambam and facing south is the goddess shrine in a cubicle, who bears the appellation – Aadhi nayaki and Munnilai Nayaki, seen with abhaya and vara mudras in her lower arms and lotuses on the upper. Her shrine is located on the way to the Lord’s sannidhi, quite different from the usual pattern. This is to signify that the mother precedes the father in showering the affection on her children. And the location of the shrine of Muruga behind that of Siva implies the reciprocation of the child’s love for its parents. . Therefore, the devotees should worship Aadhi Nayaki and Aadhi Nathar first before worshipping Muruga.
Moving towards the garbha griha, a small hall with one side partitioned into a room is seen where the finely-sculpted bronze statues of Nataraja in ‘chathura thandavam’ and Goddess Sivakami are kept. Besides, the idols of the utsavars are also kept in this room.
The lingam form of Lord Siva is a swayambu, and He is known as Maripilinathar since he is believed to protect everyone.
Legend has it that a Chola king, whose head-quarters was Uraiyur, Tiruchi, was on a hunting expedition in the forest abutting Vayalur. During the expedition he felt thirsty and searched for water. And when he sighted a three-forked sugarcane plant he cut one of its branches only to notice blood oozing out from it. On digging around its base, he noticed a Siva lingam lying buried and immediately decided to build a temple for the deity. But only a small temple came through as the king in the meanwhile passed away. Historically speaking, the temple was built in the ninth century. The swayambu lingam is called Vidangar.
In the southern prakaram, the sannidhi for Subramanya Swamy is located behind the garbha griha of Aadhi Nadhar at a higher elevation. A flight of steps has been provided to go near the sannidhi to have darshan. Besides are sannidhis for Muthukumara Swamy and Poyya Ganapathy and on the southern wall of Aadhi Nadhar is the niche for Dakshinamurthy, which is a fine piece of sculpture.
Subramanya, sporting the spear, is seen with Valli and Devasena, and his vahanam, peacock, is delineated in such a way that its head is turned towards Valli (Deva pakam).
The deity has been the pole-star of Thirumuruga Kripananda Wariar for over five decades, and not a discourse of his would commence without invoking His blessings. In fact he was instrumental in the construction of the rajagopuram and kumbhabhishekam was performed in 1937. Since then he was unanimously chosen to head the committee for renovation. Under the guidance of Wariar and his brother, Thirmaraignana Sivam, J.N. Balasuramanian took charge of the second stage of expansion of the temple, the ashtabandana kumbhabhshekam of which was performed on June 19, 1969 and the last one took place in 2006.
The northern prakaram, which can be reached from the Subramanya Sannidhi, has a separate niche for Goddess Lakshmi, and the one for Durga and Chandikeswarar that are found adjoining the northern wall of Aadhi Nadhar’s shrine. There are number of inscriptions on the deva koshtam of Aadhi Nathar, which refer the temple as Agneswaram and in the year 1936, they were copied and catalogued under serial numbers 138 to 157 of Epigraphica Indica. That during the Chola rule, Vayalur was known as Kelaranthaka Valanattil Vayalur Kootrathu Vayalur and Thenkarai Brahmadeyam Nandivarma Mangalam is seen from the inscriptions. The presiding deity also went by names such as Vidanga Peruman, Mahadevan, Marappili and Thirukatrali Peruman Adigal. The Chola kings, Raja Raja I, Rajendra I and Kulothunga I had donated land, gold and ghee to the temple for the conduct of daily pujas, lighting of perpetual lamp and rectification of nandavanam.
Special mention must be made of the navagriha idols found in the north eastern corner of the main hall. While Surya with his Consorts, usha Devi and Chaya Devi, faces westward in a standing posture, the other eight grahas face Surya in the same posture. It is believed that the malefic effects of the eight grahas are nullified by worshipping Surya.
The sthala tirtham is Sakti, which is said to have been created by Lord Muruga to perform puja to his parents. Kamika agamam is in force at this temple.
Special festivalsStarting from the month of Chithirai up to Panguni a series of festivals will take place in this temple. Brahmotsavam in Vaikasi is conducted for 12 days, Arunagirinadhar festival in Aani, Kandha Sashti in Iyppasi for seven days, which includes Soora samharam and Murugan thirukalyanam and Thaipoosam. The car festival will take place on the ninth day of the brahmotsavam. On the Thai Poosam day, Lord Muruga presents himself as Muthukumara Swamy to the villagers of Adhavathur and Somarasam pettai. It is believed that those who wish to offer worship for the lord at Palani or Thiruchendur may do it at this place.
How to reach : Buses to Vayalur are available from Chatram Bus stop, Tiruchi railway junction and Uraiyur.
The Somarasampettai - Adhanur road, which takes off from Uraiyur, heads towards Vayalur passing through various housing colonies. This road zigzags after a traverse up to Uyyakondan Thirumalai and runs in close proximity to the Uyyakondan channel. After about ten kilometres from Tiruchi, a cut road branches off to the right which reaches the temple. Buses bound for Somarasampettai stop here. A nunnery on the cut road serves as a landmark to people and motorists to proceed.
