Kapaleeswarar temple- a divine touch to Mylapore

The entrance gopuram
(PS:Those girls are posing for someone else.)

On a lazy Friday afternoon, as I was sipping my coffee and browsing through FB, I came across a page - 1001 things to do in Chennai. Among the posts, one particular post struck my eyes. 'Kapaleeswarar temple- a divine touch to Mylapore.'(I adopted the same title for this journal) It was about an 8th century hindu temple situated at Mylapore which was 4 km away from the place where I was staying. As I am a person who is very interested in old temples and sculptures and particularly because I was bored, I thought I'd pay a visit to the sacred shrine. I took a bath and headed to Mylapore in an auto.

According to the Puranas, Shakti worshipped Shiva in the form of a peacock, giving the vernacular name Mylai to the area that developed around the temple - mayil being the Tamil for "peacock". Shiva is worshiped as Kapaleeswarar, and is represented by the lingam. His consort Parvati is worshipped as a peahen and is called Karpagambal.

The street leading to the temple provides you a perfect glimpse of the traditional Chennai- Agrahaarams, Madisar maamis and malligapoo. As I paid the auto and walked towards the entrance, I couldn't help but gape  in amazement at the intricately carved gopuram which marks the entrance of the temple. The 120 ft gopuram was built in 1906 with detailed stucco figures of Hindu mythical characters adorning it.

On entering inside, you can see numerous shrines assigned to various deities, prominent among them being Karpagambal and Kapaleeswarar. I saw a long queue of devotees waiting to catch a glimpse of their idol and pray for making their wishes come true. Even though I didn't have much to pray for , I too stood among them. The idol of Karpagambal was adorned with a kaasumala (garland made of gold coins) , which I learned later , was a Friday ritual. There are numerous small idols present in various parts of the shrine, belonging to various other characters of the Hindu legend. I was lucky enough to see the half hour long deeparadhana of Kapaleeswarar, which was another Friday ritual. The day of visit and the timing was perfect.

As I got out of the shrine and walked towards the exit I saw a peahen running on the ground.  They are domesticated in the temple premises and are considered to be sacred birds. I tried to get a shot of her, but whenever I took my camera out, she hid her head in feathers and ran away. Very shy bird I suppose.

As I sat on the bank of the temple tank present at the exit of the temple, I felt an unknown calmness in my mind. All your thoughts get silenced, your mind gets still, you experience true inner peace. As if you just woke up from a meditation. Believe me this place is a true stress buster. The divine atmosphere of Kapaleeswarar temple really has a magical effect in it. It not only connects you to the Omnipotent, but also provides a better connection to your true inner self. If u r a Chennaite , never miss an opportunity to visit this sacred temple. It's really worth it..