The only shrine where Kala Bhairavar appears as a child

Kala Bhairavar is the ferocious form of Lord Shiva and normally seen with angry eyes, blazing hair, tiger’s teeth, snake coiled around his neck and in some places with even garland of human skulls. Kala Bhairavar carries a trident, a drum and the severed fifth head of Brahma. His third eye represents eternal supreme wisdom. One’s fear get destroyed when they worship Lord Bhairava. However, in some of the temples he is depicted in sober form too.

One such unique Lord Kala Bhairavar Temple is located in a small village called Thagattur in Nagapattinam district. The temple is believed to be 1500 years old. This is one of the rare temples where Lord Kala Bhairavar is the main deity in the sanctum (Moolavar). Thagattur comes from the word Thagadu, which is Yantra in Sanskrit. Generally, Yantras like Sri Chakras are installed in temples and one such yantra is installed in this temple too. Sri Sattainathar (Form of Bhairavar) is the procession deity (Urchavar) of this temple.

This temple also has shrines for Lord Kasi Vishwanathar, Goddess Visalakshi, Lord Vinayaga, and Lord Subramanya (Lord Muruga) with his consorts Valli and Deivanai, Goddess Durga and Lord Chandikeswara.  It is said that offering worship in the sanctum sanctorum of Lord Viswanathar in this temple, one begets the same fruits and benefits of offering pooja to the same Lord in Varanasi (Kasi) because of the legend of this temple.

Legend says that, at the end of Ramayana war, Lord Sri Rama decided to perform Shiva puja in Rameswaram to get rid of the sin of Brahmahaththi Dosha accrued out of killing Ravan. He therefore requested Lord Hanuman to go to Kasi and get him a Shiva Linga from there. When Lord Hanuman reached Kasi, he did find thousands of Shiva Lingas enshrined by the saints and sages. When Lord Hanuman found a Swayambu Lingam as advised by Lord Rama, he lifted up the Shiva Lingam and began to fly back. Kasi which was under the control of Lord Bhairavar, who is the guardian deity of the holy land even now, happened to see Lord Hanuman taking away the Shiva Lingam from his domain without his permission, got angry, stopped him and attacked Lord Hanuman from carrying the Shiva Ling from there.

They fought for several days without an end in sight and the worried Devas ran to Kasi and pleaded with Lord Bhairavar to end the war explaining that Lord Hanuman was actually the divine ambassador of Lord Rama. Lord Bhairavar calmed down and agreed to accompany Lord Hanuman to reach Rameswaram safely with the Shiva Linga and returned back instantly.

On the way, when Lord Kala Bhairavar reached Thagattur, he felt that he had suddenly turned into a small child for a moment only to regain his original form within fraction of seconds. He realized the same as signal for something and therefore decided to enshrine himself in Thagattur (which was similar to Kasi) in the form of child Lord Kala Bhairavar to grace those who worshiped him in that place.

Devotees can even notice that Lord Bhairava is the guardian for most of the temples and there is a practice of keeping the key of temple door at the feet of Bhairava idol. The temple has nine different trees each representing one of the nine planets. Therefore, it is believed that when one goes around nine times around these nine trees, they are relieved of the bad effects of the planets, as their powers are under the control of Lord Kala Bhairava.