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EXQUISITE: The Nandi at the Ezhuchur temple (bottom).

Ezhuchur is a beautiful village with paddy fields and shady trees. About a kilometre away from the village is a big lake, which is now full due to the recent rains. The Padappai region, where Ezhuchur is situated, lay on the highway leading from Kanchipuram to the eastern coast in the days of the early/Imperial Cholas and the Pallava kings.

The area was full of temples several centuries ago. These temples, belonging to the early Chola period or the Pallavas, are found at Manimangalam, Mattur, Eraiyur, Vallam and so on. The Nal-Inakkiswarar temple at Ezhuchur village is one of them.

The Sivalingam is the main deity in the temple, which has a beautifully sculpted Rajoguna Nandi (bull) with exquisite ornamentation. It wears garlands of rudraksha beads, ‘salangai’ and bells around its neck and has a ‘chutti’ on its forehead. The Nandi wears a shawl too! Its teeth are protruding and its tongue curls out. A wonderful piece of sculpture!

Earlier, besides the sanctum sanctorum which houses the Sivalingam, there were shrines for His consort Deivanayagi, Vinayaka, Muruga, Chandikeswara and other deities. An elegant-looking pond with lotuses floating on it and steps leading to it, added to the beauty of the temple.(The Hindu, December 31, 2003 and July 30, 2004). By the 1990s, however, the Nal-Inakkiswarar temple was almost totally in ruins. The pillars of several shrines had started tilting. The vimanams of the shrines had developed cracks and the compound wall had collapsed in a few places.

Krishnakumar, who is a native of Ezhuchur, says, “To safeguard the temple, we wanted to build it anew. We are building the temple from its basement level. The total cost of re-building the temple is Rs.1 crore.

When re-construction was under way, a 1,100-year old inscription in stone belonging to the Parantaka Chola period was found in the door jamb of the sanctum sanctorum. The inscription is datable to the reign of Koparakesari Panmar, who is said to be Parantaka Chola I, and is dated to 920 A.D.”

According to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) officials, the inscription records the gift of solid gold by the local headman called Nocchi Kilan Kaliya Peruman of the village named Velima Nallur of Velima Nallur Nadu. Apparently, the present-day Ezhuchur was called Velima Nallur in those days. The inscription says that Nocchi Kilan Kaliya Peruman donated gold to nattar (who formed the administrative body of the village) to build the temple. The inscription also records that if the nattar failed to construct the temple, they should pay a certain amount of gold as fine to the then king.

“After the re-building of the temple began in August 2003, the sanctum sanctorum, housing the Sivalingam, has been built anew and the work on the construction of its vimanam has been completed,” says Krishnakumar. The shrines for Deivanayagi and Muruga have been built and work on the construction of vimanams for these shrines would begin soon. The foundation has been laid for building a shrine for Ganapathy.

The temple tank has already been re-built and construction of the maha mandapam and ardha mandapam is nearly over. A mandapam for Nandi, rajagopuram and the compound wall for the temple will be built.

Work is on at the Chandikeswarar shrine and for the adhishtanam of Mahadevendra Saraswati, the 54th Sankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam. According to a copper epigraph, King Narasimha of Vijayanagara period gifted Ezhchur village in 1429 A.D. to the 54th Sankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam.

Krishnakumar can be contacted at: 044-22233857. Donations for the temple re-construction can be sent to Namasivaya Arakkattalai, 5/9, Second Street, Ramakrishna Nagar, Chitalapakkam, Chennai-600 064.

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