Melmaruvathur | temple, village

 temple, village

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It is 92 kilometers from Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, India. The famous AdiParasakthi Temple is situated here. It is well connected by trains and buses from Chennai and elsewhere.


Where the current temple's sanctum sanctorum stands today, there was only a neem tree in 1960's. Unlike every other neem tree, which bear bitter tasting fruit, this tree secreted and dripped a sweet nectar. Residents of that village found that they had a urge in their mind to taste this nectar whenever they passed by this tree. Since many passers reported of curing their illness and diseases after tasting this nectar, the word spread swiftly to entire village and its neighborhood. So it became a customary for these villagers to take a drop of this nectar to ailing friends and relatives. They treated this as a medicinal tree and protected it from grazing cattle and wood cutters.
In 1966, a severe storm uprooted this neem tree, which exposed the Swayambu underneath to the villagers for the first time. Swayambu means "A self emerging, naturally formed oval shaped object (carved of rock)". People built a small hut on top of this Swayambu and conducted poojas (prayer rituals) to it.
This place is known as Siddhar Peetam ("Siddhar" in Tamil language means enlightened or evolved souls. "Peetam" means throne. Thus Siddhar Peetam means The Throne of Evolved Souls or Great Spiritual Masters/Gurus) where 21 Siddhars are laid in Jeeva Samaadhi.
Swayambu alone was worshipped for many years. The idol of Mother AdhiParaSakthi was installed later in the sanctum sanctorum on November 25 1977. The idol of beautiful Mother is three feet tall, seated on thousand-petal lotus seat, with Her right leg folded and the left leg resting on the lotus petals. The thousand petal lotus has significance in meditation. In this idol form, She holds the bud of a lotus in Her right hand, the mudhra (sign) of knowledge in Her left hand and with Her hair plait and knotted upwards like a crown.