In Chennai

Was in Chennai today for my son’s exam.

I was free to do anything from 9 am to 1:30 pm. With Google Maps on my Ipad guiding me, I drove  around easily and visited the following places. The following places were randomly chosen and I did not have any knowledge of these places apart from having heard the places.

“Google maps” app on my ipad  is an iphone app, but i installed it on my ipad and works better than regular “google maps” on browser i.e., Chrome ( Ipad now allows Chrome installation ) or Safari. I searched for “nearby attractions” from the point of my location and I chose the following 3 places for visiting.

“mapmyindia” on my car’s navigation did not show these attractions on ‘Nearby POI’ ( points of interest)

• Marundeeswarar Temple at Thiruvanmyur
• Asta Lakshmi Temple at Besant Nagar
• St Thomas mount church

Marundeeswarar Temple at Thiruvanmyur

Marundeeswarar ( Marundu= Medicine, Eswar=God, rar=tag used after a name to indicate respect). Here the lord Siva i.e., Eswar/a was supposed to have given knowledge of  medicine to sage Agastya and so the temple attracts  people with problems with their health. Sage Valmiki was known to have worshiped the lord here. Lord Brahma is believed to have conducted a festival here for lord Shiva.Parking on main road attracts fine,  So take your car into parking space next to the big temple pond outside the temple. ( There is another temple pond right inside the temple)

The gopurams or towers and  are painted in multiple colors extravagantly bright and showy, but tasteless.

 

There is a regular vehicular traffic right in front of the temple tower. Most of those on the two wheelers, passing by the gopuram, instinctively turn their heads and offer a namaskar.

There is a temple pond outside the temple which is poorly maintained.

As you pass through the main gopuram, ( see the image below) there is the Nataraja mandapam to your right and another pond to the left

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Ashtalakshmi Temple (Asta Lakshmi Temple would be a better pronounciation) at Eliot’s Beach / Besant Nagar.

The Temple has  eight forms of Goddess Lakshmi (Asta = Eight).

1. Santana Lakshmi
2. Vijaya Lakshmi
3. Vidya Lakshmi
4. Gaja Lakshmi
5. Dhana Lakshmi
6. Adi Lakshmi
7. Dhanya Lakshmi
8. Dhairya Lakshmi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Then I visited St.Thomas Mount – A popular Catholic church of Chennai.

Many believe this church was built on a site after destroying a temple.