Thiruporur Kandaswamy Temple

Getting there

• By road

  The temple is on Old Mahabalipuram Road, 28 km from Chennai. Kelambakkam is nearby on the same road.

Rules to know

• Items put into the donation box cannot be returned, because the temple treats them as its property.

Why devotees come here

Thiruporur Kandaswamy Temple is a Murugan shrine in Thiruporur town, Chengalpattu district, Tamil Nadu, on Old Mahabalipuram Road. Legend places one of Murugan's battles against demons in the air over this town.

Murugan is worshipped here as Kandaswamy, and the temple is also called the Thiruporur Murugan temple or Kanthaswamy temple. Legend says a sage named Chidambara Adigal, living in Madurai, heard a divine voice. It told him to dig up a statue of Murugan under a palm tree.

The temple is believed to date from the Pallava era in the 10th century. Chidambara Swamigal, believed to be a descendant of the Sangam age poets, rebuilt it in the 17th century. The five-tiered gateway tower rises 70 ft (21 m). A 24-pillared hall leads to the granite sanctum, where a standing image of Murugan is shown with a peacock beside him. A dig in a granite room on the premises found only a dozen puja objects. The dig went up to 10 feet deep and found no archaeologically significant objects.

Festivals

• May to June, Tamil month of VaigaasiVaigaasi Visaagam

  The major festival of the temple.

• PongalPaal Kaavadi

  A milk pot festival held on Pongal, the Tamil harvest festival.

• October to November, AippasiKandha Shashti and Navarathri

  Both festivals are held in the Tamil month of Aippasi.

Tips for your visit

• The temple is also called Thiruporur Murugan temple or Kanthaswamy temple, so search with either name.
• Keep valuables such as phones out of the donation box, since offerings put in there are not returned.

Questions people ask