SAKTHIBALA NARAMUKHA VINAYAYAKA TEMPLE, SOUTH CAR STREET -CHIDAMBARAM-TAMILNADU
Introduction Sri Sakthi Bala Naramukha Vinayagar temple located on SouthCar Street, Chidambaram in the Cuddalore District of Tamilnadu. This is a unique temple featuring a rare form of Ganesha with a human face,representing the deity before his head was replaced with an elephant's. This is separate from the main ThillaiNataraja Temple. There are three temples in Tamil Nadu for the human faceVinayaga as Nara Mukha Vinayagar before the episode of Lord cuts the head ofMukha Vinayagar. Second one is the Vinayagar temple is at Sethalapathy (one ofthe 276 Thevara Paadal Petra Shiva Temples with moolavar as Muktheeswarar),near Koothanur in Thiruvarur District as Adhi Vinayagar Temple. The third oneis in Trichy. Key information Temple name: Sri Sakthi Bala Naramuga Vinayagar Temple. Location: South Car Street, Chidambaram. Deity: Ganesha with a human face (Naramukha Vinayagar). Significance: It is one of only three temples in Tamil Nadu that feature a human-facedGanesha deity. The deity is also believed to bless devotees prayingfor a child. Unique feature: The deity at this temple is unique because ithas a human face, a form also known as Adhi Vinayaka, representing Ganesha'soriginal appearance before his elephant head. History This temple is centuries-old. It is a chozha period temple About the temple This small temple faces north. The Southside Rajagopuram ofSri Natarajar temple is just opposite this temple. This roadside temple has sanctumsanctorum with a front mandapa. Thesanctum sanctorum is in rectangular shape with a vimana and 3 Kalasas. Themandapa pillars are round in shape with capitals are of Chozha period style. The mandapa front arch hasthe stucco image of Nara Mukha Vinayaka. Deity Moolavar : Sri Sakthi Bala Nara Mukha Vinayagar pujas and rituals: As in other Ganesha temples Some devotees believe the temple can assist with childblessings and other personal matters, so it may have specific poojas for theserequests. Temple timings Morning: 6 a.m.–12 p.m. Evening: 5 p.m.–10 p.m. Festival Ganesh Chaturthi: Asthe temple is dedicated to a unique human-faced form of Lord Ganesha, it isvery likely that this festival, celebrating his birth, is observed. Location Vinayagar temple on South Car Street opposite Sri NatarajarTemple’s South Rajagopuram. Interesting Addition All about Chidambaram The temple of Lord Nataraja in the Holy city of Chidambaramin Tamil Nadu has a variety of special features and architectural marvels: In Chidambaram, it was GovindarAja PerumAL sannidhi that wasthe foremost (’Adi sannidhi’). NatarAja sannidhi came later. This conversionoccurred during the rule of a king who was a Siva bhakta. All the four Raja gopurams of this temple are equal in height The ‘South Car Street’ houses a Ganapathi Temple. Thespeciality of this temple is that the Ganesha does not have an elephant face!The Ganesha has a human face! This is a very rare idol of Ganesha, known as‘Nara Mukha Ganapathy’. The entrance of the main deity of Nataraja has five stepswhich denote the ‘pancha bhUta’ or the 5 elements. The Gold cladded Nine kalasas in the Gopuram indicate thenine openings of the human body. (In Srimad Bhagavatam, the human body isreferred as ‘navadwaarapuri’ for the same reason.) In the Nataraja temple Utsav, there is a custom of the Lordtaking on the act of a beggar (‘BhikshAndAn’). He comes to the gates as a‘BhikshAndAn’ on one of the Utsav evenings. This is the only exclusive Nataraja temple in the whole ofTamil Nadu Sri Maha Periyava of Kanchi ordained the construction of asimilar temple in Satara near Kohlapur in Maharashtra. Side note: There are lots of ‘pramAna’ (proof) in the view that Chidambaram NatarAja has come fromKerala desa. The Dikshitars of Chidambaram keep ‘poorva shika’ (thetuft worn on the forehead). This is a Kerala tradition. ParasurAma established this Kshetra (Holy place on the westcoast) and shifted some Brahmins, from what is now known as Tamizh Nadu, tothis region. Here, itrains almost all through the year. It is not very easy to live under such acondition. The difference in climatic conditions was not found suitable fortheir living. ParasurAma, however, made them wear ‘poorva shika’. Abasthamba rishi says, ‘One shouldnever change his ’shika’ (tuft), ‘pundram’ (religious mark on the forehead) and’sutram’. This is smriti ‘vAkya’ (the words of the Smriti). Dharmaforbids a person belonging to one class of sutra taking up the performance ofanother sutra. Amongst these Brahmins who were shifted to the west coast byParasurAma, some returned to Tamizh Nadu region while some stayed back. These people with ‘poorva shika’ arecalled ’sozhiyAL’. Some parts of Tamizh Nadu are filled with theseBrahmins. Since NatarAja has come from Kerala, the NatarAja Dishitarskeep ‘poorva shika’. The words, ‘Ponnambalam’, ‘Chitrambalam’ are words from the region of Kerala.‘Ambalam’ is a word from this region. The dish ‘KaLi’ is from thisregion. This dish is prepared for ‘ThiruvAdirai’ festival. Lots of Kerala ’sampradaya’(tradition) can be found here. Compiled and Posted byR. Gopalakrishnan on 28-10-2025. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/199795361.813784.1761622291934%40mail.yahoo.com.
