Friday 2 September 2016

Chembarambakkam Tank, Sri Kanniamman Temple and a ruined Jyeshta Devi Shrine., Kanchipuram District, Tamil Nadu.

A Continuation to the previous post. 
27th August 2016.
After visiting the Parvathavardhini Samedha Sri Ramanatheeswarar temple  and megalithic burial sites ( Cairn circles ) at Thirukavanur, we reached the bund of Chembarambakkam Lake. It was an panoramic sight to see the lake with water and might be  more beautiful with water gushing out through the 19 sluice gates and 5 new sluice gates.
   
CHEMBARAMBAKKAM TANK  
This lake  contributes to about 30% of the water to the Adyar river water and also this serves as drinking water source to  Madras ( Chennai ). This lake get gets water from the Cooum river through Korattur anaikattu  ( Barrage ) … The actual start point of River Adyar is from Vellarai Village as per google map.  The full tank level is 84.5 feet. The full tank capacity is 3,645 million cft.  

During the years 1996, 1975,1943, 1946, 1960,1966 and 1930.00 the water reached the maximum level of the tank.  There are two sluice gates to let out the water from the tank. But both sluice gates lets the water in a common channel.






















The Chembarambakkam lake water joints with the Adyar river at this point 

SRI KANNIAMMAN TEMPLE
This shrine is at the left side of the bund, below the ground level. IThe temple might have existed earlier and the bunds are constructed latter. Even though it was  called as a Kanniamman temple, a Shiva linga is there in the shrine.  

LOCATION OF THE LAKE & DAM : CLICK HERE





A RUINED JYESHTA DEVI SHRINE
On the way to Manimangalam  from the Chembarambakkam tank  through Dhanalakshmi College of Engineering we happened to see a  Jyeshta Devi statue by the side of the road standing under the  open to sky. We had seen  some of the fragments of the statues in a bush with trace of a temple.  Jyeshta Devi is  under worship.

LOCATION OF THE JYESHTA DEVI: 










SECOND VISIT
On 7th April 2019,  on the way to Kavanur Sri Ramanatheswarar Temple Visited this Tank water intake tower. After seeing the google map thought that the route around the bund might be okay. But I found very difficult to ride my scooter. Thorny bushes are on the both side. On two places the way was locked with gate. With a great difficulty finally reached the intake tower and seen the tank. 

 The Water intake Tower 




Fish market ( fresh water lake fish ) 
To be Continued…..

Sri Parvatha vardhini Sametha Sri Ramanatheeswarar Temple, Thirukavanur /Sirukalathur and Megalithic Burial sites, Kanchipuram District, Tamil Nadu.

 A Continuation to the previous post. 
27th August 2016.
SRI PARVATHA VARDHINI SAMEDHA SRI RAMANATHEESWARAR TEMPLE, KAVANUR / SIRUKALATHUR.  
This temple is on the way to Chembarambakkam tank. The temple is on a small hill of about  50 to 60 feet high. This is a stone structure might have built during Pallava period. The temple was renovated  at-least before 50 years back and we could see the Tamil numbers written on the stones as identification markings. The temple is facing east and Rishabam with balipedam are kept out side the  temple. The pedestals are built with bricks. The Tamil inscriptions are at the base of the sanctum.

It was believed that Sri Rama and Sekkizhar  worshiped lord Shiva of this temple.  Sri  Sitha was identified as vaibhava Lakshmi. We could trace 2 nos of megalithic ( Cairn circles ) burial sites near the temple.

CONTACT DETAILS :
The temple is under renovation and needs fund.  The donors are requested to contact  the mobile numbers 9444463567, 9710207628 and 9840765830 for the renovation.

LOCATION OF THE TEMPLE : CLICK HERE











MEGALITHIC BURIAL SITES - CAIRN CIRCLES
megalithic ( Cairn circles ) burial sites
megalithic ( Cairn circles ) burial sites
A beautiful sight of Thiruneermalai 
To be continued ….

Sri Nagaimukavalli Samedha Sri Kandhaleeswarar Temple & Sekkizhar Temple at Kundrathur, Kanchipuram District, Tamil Nadu.

A Continuation to the previous post. 
27th August 2016
Our third stop was at Kundrathur through Porur. Since the Ooraga Perumal temple was not opened we could see Sri Kandhaleeswarar temple and Sri Sekkizhar Temples.

SRI NAGAIMUKAVALLI SAMEDHA SRI KANDHALEESWARAR TEMPLE.
This is  a Chozha period shiva temple renovated latter.  The temple is facing east with a Rajagopuram. This time we could spot an inscription stone standing in the garbage in front of the entrance. Since it was surrounded by shrubs and garbage we could not study more details. 

LOCATION OF THE TEMPLE :CLICK HERE














There is a separate temple for the saint Sekkizhar at Kundrathur in addition to the manimandapam near Sri Nageswarar Shiva Temple. He compiled the 12th thirumurai,  Periyapuranam, the  life history of 63 Nayanmars. He worked as Chief minister under Anapaya Chozan.  He was a scholar in Tamil and he quoted  a  ‘thirukural’  poem as  an answer to the question asked at the young age. For the details of my previous visit :Click Here

LOCATION OF THE TEMPLE :  CLICK HERE ( Just on the  west  side of the Shiva Temple  ) 




To be Continued …..

Sri Visalakshi Samedha Sri Kasi Viswanathar Temple, St. Thomas Mount, Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

A Continuation to the previous post. 
 27th August 2016
SRI  VISALAKSHI SAMEDHA SRI KASI VISWANATHAR TEMPLE.
Our second stop was at a Shiva temple at St. Thomas Mount, which was once called as Parangi malai.  The temple must be 200 to 300 years old and only a recent inscription is there.

On the entrance wall there is an inscription tablet,  which speaks about the place of the temple  Bringi malai ( from the recent period inscriptions ) and the properties it has for its maintenance.  On the opposite side of the Rajagopuram, the  Nandavanam  was completely encroached. The gate pillar Nandhi was also merged to the house staircase. For the details of my previous visit please  click the link…. Click Here

LOCATION OF THE TEMPLE :CLICK HERE








This war Cemetery was not in our agenda and only few people after taking breakfast ( Before others completes their breakfast ) at Hotel Sangeetha ventured in to it. Compared to my previous visit this temple it was restricted to take photographs.  During December 2015 flood the cemetery was submerged under  knee deep water.

THE WAR CEMETERY
The stone slabs with inscriptions were installed in memory of the British peoples killed  during world war, between 1939 to 1945. Actually the bodies are not buried here.  These memory stones include the personal worked in army as well as civilians also.

THE LOCATION OF THE WAR CEMETERY:CLICK HERE






To be continued ….

Marmalong Bridge / Maraimalai Adigal Bridge, Saidapet, Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

27th August 2016
On 27th August 2016, we, 12 history and heritage enthusiasts started our journey to explore the temples and heritage sites on the banks of river ADYAR from its start point. The group was led by the historian Mr Venkatesh and stalwarts Mrs Padmapriya Baskaran, Mr Shaswath, Mr Gopu and Mr T K Krishnakumar. Also the  young guide Mr Nandan too joined with us and explained St Thomas and Garrisson church.   There are more than 100 tanks/ lakes  contributes water to the river Adyar of which the Chembarambakkam lake contributes to about 30%.  There are many temples and historical important sites on the banks of river Adyar, of which we could cover only few in this trip and lot more to go… I request my readers to pardon me for the poor quality of the photos due to cloudy and some times drizzling. Started from T.Nagar and our first stop was at Saidapet Maraimalai Adigal Bridge at saidapet.

The popularly known Saidapet bridge was constructed by an Armenian Community trader by the name Coja Petrus Uscan,   who was born in 1680 AD and died in Madras in the year 1751. He had immense wealth, kind hearted  and he was very loyal to the British during French Occupation of Madras, the present Chennai. In 1728 he constructed  the Marmalong bridge which connects the Guindy and Mambalam in those days at a cost of  30,000 pagodas, also he donated the full amount of 1500 pagodas to the maintenance.  A stone  slab with inscriptions in four languages on the north end of the bridge, of which one inscription is not visible.

The original bridge was replaced by a new bridge  during the year 1966 with  pre-stressed concrete slabs. The length of the bridge is 770 meters. The bridge is supported by 12 pillars spaced at an average span of  60 feet. The foot path is 10 feet on both sides. The bridge was constructed at a cost of Rs 42.5 lakhs by Highways and Rural Department.

THE LOCATION OF THE BRIDGE :CLICK HERE






To be continued ……..