Nandhi's own musical instrument that he played for Shiva Thandavam!

Thyagarajaswamy temple, is one of the most important Shaiva temples in the entire country. It occupies an area of around 20 acres. The temple tank Kamalalayam ( lotus tank) is one of the largest in the country with an area of around 33 acres. The temple car, the world famous 'Thiruvarur Ther' is the largest in the country weighing around 300 tons with a height of 96 feet. The size and importance of this temple could be gauged by the fact that there are 9 Rajagopurams, more than 100 shrines, 86 Ganeshas, 24 sub-temples, 3 big prakarams, 80 vimanams, 13 big mandapams, 3 gardens, 15 wells (theerthams), 365 Lingams to denote the number of days in a year, etc. It is difficult to cover and have a detailed look of this temple within a day.

Thiruvarur is also the most important among 274 Padal petra sthalams in Shaivism, having thevarams sung by all the 4 leading Nayanmars-Appar, Sundarar, Sambandar and Mancikavasagar. This temple holds the record for the maximum number of Thevaram songs - 353. It was also the birth place of the Trinity of Carnatic Music-Shri Thyagaraja Swamigal, Muthuswamy Deekshitar and Shyama Sastry.

There are two main lingams - Vanmikanathar and Thyagarajar. The former is originally from ant hills and is believed to be the Adi Lingam of this Kshetram. Now there is a small maragatha lingam made of emerald for which Poojas are offered at fixed hours- 8.30am, 11 am and 7 PM- and then kept in a silver box and this is kept on the right side of the Thyagesar Lingam.

The Thyagarajar is in the Somaskanda roopa - Swamy and Ambal with Subramanya in the middle - and the temple is named after him. The idol is so beautiful both in front and back that there is a saying in Tamil “ Munnilum Mummadanku Pinnazhagar" meaning, back thrice beautiful than the front. However this practice of calling Him Thyagaraja commenced only from 16th century. Earlier He was either known as Veedhi Vidankar or Aarurapati. This Lord is always believed to be doing the iconic rhythmic dance called Ajaba Nadanam. The feet of the Thyagaraja Murthy could be seen only twice an year- left leg on the Panguni Uthiram day and right leg on the Arudra Darsanam-Thiruvathirai day. Rest of the time, They are covered with flowers.

In all the Shiva temples, after Thevaram is recited, they end with the utterance of the word “Thiruchitrambalam”, to denote that this ends with the Lord at Chidambaram. This is the only Shiva temple where Thiruchitrambalam is not uttered at the end of recitation of Thevarams as this temple is considered ancient even compared to Chidambaram. In fact, the date of establishment of this temple is not known. Even Sambandar had asked the same question in 10 thevarams.

Like Chidambara Rahasyam, there is Tiruvarur Rahasyam, believed to be enshrined behind the Thyagarajar shrine. In all the Shiva temples, Pradosha Pooja is performed once in a fortnight. This is the only temple where Pradosha Pooja is performed between 4.30 and 6 pm every day.

There are two Ambals in this temple, Kamalambal and Neelothpalambal. The latter is believed to be the Adi Parasakthi avatar and is having only two hands. Though the normal belief is that as the temple tank was full of Lotus it came to be called Kamalalayam and the Mother Kamalamba! The other explanation is that She combines the features of the Tri-Devis- Ka for Kalaimagal (Saraswathi), Ma for Malaimagal (Parvathi) and La for Alaimagal (Lakshmi). Kamalambal also has the half-moon on her head which we normally see only in Shiva. She poses with the right hand holding a lotus and the left hand resting on Her hip with the Yoga posture.

Neelothpalambal is having a shrine in Thyagarajar temple. Here there is a maid standing by the side of the Mother, holding Murugan. Ambal keeps one hand on Her Son’s head, as if patting with motherly affection.

In almost all the temples, Nandi is seen in sitting position. This is one of the rare temples, where he is in standing position. This is the case with all the 7 Sapthavidanga Kshetrams and all these Nandis are made of metal and not stone.

Those who have the Mukha (face) darshan of the Lord at this temple, should also visit Vilamal temple situated around 3 Kms from here, to have Paada (Foot) darshan.

Tiruvarur is one of the Mukthi kshetrams. As per local belief, those who are born in this place, are relieved of the burden of re-birth.

There is a Lingam installed in this temple by Rajaraja Chozhan I. The peculiarity of this Lingam is that its shadow can be seen only in the eastern direction. There is also a local belief that this shadow cannot be seen by a person who is likely to live for less than six months.

There is a five faced percussion musical instrument called Pancha Mukha Vadhyam which is not seen in any other temple. It is believed that Nandi played this for Shiva Tandavam. This is played in all the poojas in this temple. In addition, there are two more musical instruments- Paarinayanam and Suddha Mathalam- played only in this temple.