Place · Murugan coastal shrine · India
Tiruchendur
The sea-coast Murugan temple at Thiruchendur in Tuticorin district, Tamil Nadu, one of the six Arupadaiveedu abodes of Murugan — the only one on the shore. Here Murugan is said to have defeated the demon Soorapadman, whose body split into the peacock mount and the cock emblem on his flag. The present temple structure is 17th-century, rebuilt after a Portuguese raid of 1649 that carried off the processional deities (recovered through a diver named Vadamalaiyappa in 1653 after the goddess appeared to him in a dream). The temple's sacred tank is one of the few in Tamil Nadu that uses direct seawater.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Tradition
- Tamil Murugan tradition
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 8.496, 78.120
Connections (1)
- Coastal pilgrim pairRāmeshvara / Rameswaram
Tiruchendūr and Rāmeshvaram are the two great shore temples of the Gulf of Mannar, a hundred and seventy kilometres apart, and are done together as the Tamil coast's pilgrimage. One is Murugan's camp before the sea battle with Sūrapadma; the other is where Rāma is said to have installed a liṅga before crossing to Lanka. Both put a sanctum where the land stops.
On these journeys
Sources
Hindu pilgrimage sites in India — Wikipedia
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