Legend of the Dhandeeswarar Temple - Velachery, Chennai

As a former resident of Velachery, I have always been fascinated by this spectacularly large temple complex. The Dhandeeswarar temple in Velachery is perhaps the oldest and the most impressive temple among the veritable bevy of options devotees and residents have access to. This classic Chola Shiva temple was once at the center of life at Vedashreni (abode of the vedas), the ancient name for Velachery. The picture shown here is the entrance of this extraordinary temple. This temple was constructed around 11th century A.D. when this part of the country was under the sway of the Chola dynasty. This period coincides with the peak of Chola power at this time typified by the reign of Rajendra Chola (1012-1044 A.D.)

See below for the satellite image of this substantially large temple. The green arrow approximately locates the position of the inner sanctum.


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The Sthala puranam associated with this temple is as follows. Dhandam is the weapon used by Lord Yamah. Yamah was about to kill Markkandeya whose lifespan was predestined to be exactly sixteen years, he put the rope to the neck of Maarkkandeya. However, to escape Yamah Maarkkandeya was holding fast to Lord Shiva, and so the rope of Yamah also fell around shiva. Thus, Lord shiva got extremely angry and confiscated Yamah's Dhandam. Later Lord Yamah had to undertake considerable penance to get back his Dhandam. Hence, this place is called Dhandeeswarar named after Lord Shiva who was in possession of the Dhandam. The pond adjacent to the temple is the place where Yamah performed his penance to get back his Dhandam. This Yama theertham (pond) used to be in considerable disuse and used for dumping garbage for a long time until it was recently refurbished.

Renovated Yama Theertham of Dhandeeswarar Temple