Chidambaram Temple

The post will cover about the details about Chidambaram temple, places to visit and also about my experience during my Visit. The audience can navigate to the respective portions as per their interests but would suggest to spend time to get a holistic picture and more details.

About the place:

The Nataraj Temple Chidambaram is also referred as Thillai Nataraj Temple is located in Chidambaram.There are five natural elements and Chidambaram is one of the Pancha bootha temples.Chidambaram Temple denotes akasha(Space/Sky), the other four are Thiruvannamalai Arunachaleswara (fire),Kalahasthi denotes Wind, Kanchi Ekambareswar denotes land, Thiruvanaikaval Jambukeswara,Trichy (water). The Chidambaram temple is one of the few temples which has both Shiva and Vishnu Deities at a single place. Also is a place where Lord Shiva exists in 3 forms, in most of the Temples Lord Shiva would be in the form of ‘Lingam’ but here he is in three forms

1) as Natarajar (Ananda Tandava posture)

2) in the form of as the Crystal lingam

3) empty space(Chidambara Ragasiyam)

How to Reach:

The temple is located in Chidambaram which is about 235 Km from Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu state of southeastern India. Depending on your place you can use navigation and use keyword “Thillai Nataraja Temple, Chidambaram”.

Things to do/Places to Visit from Chidambaram:

After visiting the Thillai Natarajar temple (don’t miss the Chidambara Ragasiyam, have covered it in my experience later in the blog)there are various places which can be visited depending on individual choice. There are Spiritual, historically significant and also picnic spots.

Spiritual/temple: 

There are many places which can be visited from Chidambaram, gateway to temples of Kumbakonam and Thanjavur starts from here.

Gangai Konda Cholpuram: 

This temple is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site and is located about 40 kms from chidambaram. A must visit Temple, if you visit Chidambaram or Thanjavur

Thirukkadaiyur : 

located at about 45 km from Chidambaram, Thirukkadaiyur is one of the 8 Veera Sthalas, where Yama had clashed with Lord Shiva. It is believed that this is the place where Lord Shiva protected Markandeya, son of Mrikandu, from Yama. The scar caused by the Yama's rope is visible on the Linga during abisheka times. Based on the legend of Markandeya, it is believed that worshipping at this temple will give long life. A service called Sashtipoorthi is celebrated in honor of a husband's sixtieth birthday and Sadhabishegam is celebrated in honor of his eighty-first birthday.

Vaitheeswaran Koil: 

located a about 27 km from Chidambaram, the place is famous and known for palm leaf astrology called Naadi Astrology in Tamil.

Mayiladuthurai  :

    located at about 42 km from Chidambaram, This temple is one among the six temples which are compared as equivalent to the temple in Varanasi.

Picnic Spot:

Pichavaram : 

16 kms from Chidambaram, These mangroves are the second largest mangroves in the world after Sundarbans.  Boating is very famous and the mangrove forest can be explored through row boat or motor boat. would suggest the Row boat since it could go through the narrow places which the Motor boat could not go.

Poompuhar : 

40 Kms from Chidambaram, Poompuhar was once the biggest port on the east coast of Tamil Nadu, and was as its peak of glory under the earlier Chola kings. Silappathikaram and Manimekalai, the Tamil epics, bring out the greatness of the city in some of the poems in Sangam literature.

Facts about the Temple:

The “Pancha bootha” temples, Chidambaram (Sky), Kalahasthi(Wind), Kanchi Ekambareswar(land).

It is amazing that all these 3 temples are located in a straight line

Google Map Picture:

1) The dance of Lord Nataraja is described as Cosmic Dance by Western Scientists and the statue of LORD NATARAJA is present at the CERN, the European Center for Research in Particle Physics in Geneva

 2) Chidambaram temple has 9 entrances and is based on the Human having 9 openings of the body.

3) Temple roof is made of 21600 gold sheets denoting  the 21600 breaths(average) taken by a human being every day (15 x 60 x 24 = 21600)

 4) Unlike other temple where the mail deity will be located at the center of the temple here the deity of lord Nataraja is located  slightly tilted towards the left. This represents humans Heart.

My experience:

Our Journey from Chennai to Chidambaram started at about 5am and we had reached chidambaram by 10 am despite of few stops in the middle.

The first thing which welcomed me are the Rajinikanth Posters all over the town for his birthday and political plunge, being a hard core Rajini Fan it was a great feeling.we then had search a little for a decent Hotel, since most of them were lodges. We finally found a good hotel. Few good hotels are available on the street near the Temple Entrance.

Had to then quickly freshen up since the Chidambaram Temple would close by 12PM.We had reached the Chidambaram Temple by 11am and being a first timer was little gazed on where we should start. The Temple is huge and has 4 entrances.

We had then enquired and reached the place where the main deity , Natarajar is present.

The place had lord Vishnu and Lord Natarajar at the same place (about 20m distance) and we were lucky enough to get in touch with a Akka(sister in Tamil) who guided us and it was only because of her that we witnessed all the forms of Shiva.  She first asked us to see the Shiva in the form of Natarajar  (dancing Position) and then to our luck Abisegam was in proceeding to Lingam(crystal lingam) which is another prominent form of Lord Shiva and at last was guided by akka to watch the third form i.e the Chidambara Ragasiyam.

 The Famous Chidambara Ragasiyam is  secret message  which is told through the object near the deity .The Darshan of Chidambara Ragasiyam is not possible at all times. It can be witnessed only during the times when the Priest open the Blue Curtain which is towards the right hand side of Natarajar  deity.

it is possible only when priests open the curtain (or Maya) for special poojas. People who are privileged to have a darshan of Chidambara Ragasiyam can merely see golden vilva leaves .It Would be towards the left most side and extreme right side from the deity. it would be opened three times. And after witnessing the Ragasiya , we went around the entire temple.

We came outside the temple with the fulfillment that we had visited the temple and also that we had witnessed the chidambara ragasiyam.

An additional fact is that there are wheelchair available and it can be got at free of cost at the temple entrance.