Place · Shiva temple · India
Kapaleeshwarar, Chennai
Also known as Chennai, Kapaleeshwarar, Kapaleeshwarar — Mylapore, Mylapore
The Kapaleeshwarar Shiva temple at Mylapore in Chennai, Tamil Nadu — one of the oldest surviving Shiva temples in Chennai, with foundation traced to the 7-century Pallava period under the Mahendravarman dynasty. The temple is one of the 275 Paadal Petra Sthalams (Shiva temples sung in the Tamil Shaiva Tevaram hymns of the 7-9th centuries, by Appar, Sundarar and Sambandar). The current temple structure is 16-century Vijayanagara rebuild after the original 7-century Pallava temple was destroyed by Portuguese forces in 1566. The temple's 37-metre east gopuram and the inner mandapa contain exquisite stone sculpture. The annual Panguni Peruvizha (March-April) and Arubathimoovar (Chithirai, April) festivals each draw over 500,000 pilgrims. The temple is managed by the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious Endowments Department.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 13.034, 80.270
Connections (2)
- Chennai templesVadapalani Andavar, Chennai
Kapaleeshwarar at Mylapore is one of the Paadal Petra Sthalams, sung by the Nayanars, in a quarter that was a port when Mylapore was the harbour Thomas is said to have died at; Vadapalani Andavar is a nineteenth-century Murugan shrine that became the temple of the Tamil film industry, where producers hold their first script readings. The two are the old and the new religious centres of the same city.
- Site withinMadras / Chennai
Kapaleeshwarar, Chennai sits inside Madras / Chennai and forms one piece of its layered sacred, royal or civic landscape. The city carries this entry as one of the sites that make its urban fabric legible — a shrine, monument, institution or craft tradition specifically anchored at this location — and the city's broader history reads better when the stop is seen in its context rather than in isolation. The surrounding streets, markets and other heritage ensembles around it belong to the same single city.
Sources
Wikipedia, “Chennai”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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