Tiruchengode Ardhanareeswarar Temple

                Tiruchengode Ardhanareeswarar Temple

God is portrayed as male in some religions. God is portrayed as female in some other religions. 

There are religions who worship nature as the God. According to some religions, the God has no shape and name. As per Hinduism, God doesn't have shape, God has shape, God is in the form of self, animal, bird, male and female. To explain this, I might have to write hundreds of blog posts. Keeping that aside, there is a temple in South India where God is portrayed as half-man and half-woman. That rare temple is located in a place called Tiruchengode (Thiruchengodu) in Tamil Nadu state of South India.

Lord Shiva is one of the main Gods of Hinduism. Ardhanareeswar, one of 64 manifestations of Lord Shiva, has half-man and half-female to represent the unity of Shakti and Shiva. Even though Ardhanareeswara is a well known manifestation of Shiva, you cannot find a temple or shrine for Ardhanareeswara. As far as I know, the only temple dedicated for Ardhanareeswara in the form of half man and half woman is located only in Tiruchengode. (There are temples for Ardhanareeswara where the idol is in the form of Shiv Linga). Thus, Tiruchengode Ardhanareeswarar temple is considered as a rare temple.

Tiruchengode is a small town located near Erode. The hill top temple of Ardhanareeswarar is the famous temple of Tiruchengode. Tiruchengode is supposed to be very ancient city. You can find the reference of Tiruchengode in ancient Tamil literature such as 'Silappadikaram'. In those days, the city was named as 'Kodimada Chenkunrur'. The temple is located at a height of 1900 feet from the sea level. You can reach the temple either by motorable road or through 1200 steps. You can find various mandaps and small shrines if you use the steps to reach the temple atop hill. When you climb the steps you can also notice the images of snakes and five headed serpents carved on either side of the pathway. As per the legend, there was a deadly combat between Vayu, the Wind God, and Adi Sesha, the serpent couch of Lord Vishnu. Sesha was defeated and overthrown on this hill with bleeding wounds. As Sesha's blood fell on this hill, it got the name 'Chengodu' (Chen refers the red color in Tamil language). Due to its association with the serpent God Adi Sesha, the place is also called as Naga Giri.

Once you reach the hilltop, you can enjoy the sight of aerial view of Tiruchengode city before entering into the temple having the gigantic five tiered north facing tower. Even though the temple tower faces the north direction, the sanctum sanctorum of Ardhanareeswarare faces the western direction. Once you enter inside the temple, you will reach the 'Chengottu Velavar' shrine. Chengottu Velavar is the name of Murugan in this temple. Chengottu Velavar is as popular as Ardhanareeswarar. Arunagirinathar and others have sung hymns on Chengottu Velavar. Velavar carries swear (vel) on right hand and cock on his left hand. The image is very short hardly 31/2 feet high, but very attractive. This shrine is exactly located at the back side of the sanctum sanctorum. 

In front of the shrine of Velavar, there is a mandap full of beautiful life size sculptures of various Gods, Goddesses, and saints such as Rathi, Manmada, Nandi in different posture, a king with three wives, Veerabhadra, and Kali. There is a small idol of Selva Vinayaka is also located in this mandap.

The sanctum sanctorum has the idol of Ardhanareeswarar made of 'Navapaashanam'. The right side of the idol is male and the left side is female. It's a combination of Shiva and Parvati. The great saints such as Manikavasagar and Sambandar have sung on Ardhanareeswarar. Tiruchengode Ardhanareeswarar temple is one of 275 Padal Petra Sthalams (275 important temples of Lord Shiva). As per the legend, sage Bringi, a great devotee of Shiva avoided worshiping other deities including Parvati. Hence, the God appeared as half-Shiva and half-Parvati for Bringi. You can find the idol of Bringi saint with three legs in the main shrine. The highlight of the shrine is that you can find water always springing up perennial at the foot of Lord.

There is a separate shrine housing the processional (utsav/metal) idol of Ardhanareeswarar. The temple also houses other shrines and idols such as Mallikarjun, Sagasraling, Ilupai Viswanath and Visalakshi, Nataraj with Sivakami, Vinayak, Adi sesha, Sangameswar Vedanayaki, Bhairav, Surya, Arunagiri, Siddhi vinayak, Kumaresar, Navagraha, and Lingothbhava.

Adi Sesha shrine is also found which is rare to find in Shiva temple. There are more beautiful sculptures in the temple such as Nataraj and dancing Kali, Kuravan and Kurati, etc. There is a separate shrine for Adi Kesava (Vishnu). Kedara Gowri, Nallesar, Mukkodu Vinayakar, Nalvar, Chandikeswarar, 63 nayanmars, Kubera Lingam, Lakshmi, Nageswarar and various other Shiv Linga idols are also found in this sculpture-rich temple.

This temple was constructed and renovated by various kings including Cholas and Vijayanagara Kings.

A artistically beautiful temple with full of extraordinary sculptures located at top of the hill - A must visit.