Karpaka Vinayakar Temple, Tamil Nadu

India is a country full of temples. And each and every temple has its own history and mythology. There are many temples still unknown and not recorded in the net. But they are quite famous locally and attract millions of devotees. With this blog, I am trying to explore the temples of India, their history, myths behind their origin, their location, festivals and important other facts.

Let me start the blog with temples in Tamil Nadu which is my own state. The state gets its name from the language Tamil which is one of the most ancient languages of the world. People living in Tamil Nadu mostly speak Tamil and they are said to be descendants of Dravidians.  There are conflicting truths about their origin and history. We are not going deep into that in this blog. But we start with the temple of “Karpaga Vinayakar”

Lord Ganesha who is the first son of Lord Shiva is called in many names in many places of India. One of his most popular names is ‘Vinayak’ or in Tamil ‘Vinayakar’. Literally the name means an un-conquerable leader. Lord Ganesha is supposed to have originated from the dirt of his mother’s body. He is a God with human body and an elephant head. He has four hands.

Lord Ganesha is considered as the first God and every Hindu, worships him first before starting anything new. Even if you go to any other temple there will be a small place for Lord Ganesha and after worshiping him only people proceed to see the main deity.

In Yoga, particularly Kriya Yoga, Lord Ganesha is considered as the lord of the first chakra.  Your kiundalini awakening starts with him and without his grace nothing gets initiated.

Karpaga Vinayakar temple or in other words pillaiyarpatti vinayagar is located near Thiruppathur in Sivaganga district in Tamil Nadu. It is a cave temple with images of Lord Shiva and several other gods are made by cutting rocks. Lots of ancient texts are found in this temple that go says that the temple was built somewhere between 1100 to 1250 AD.

But the rock cut Vinayaka statue is found to be much older. The statue was carved by an ancient Tamil sculptor ‘Ekkattur Koon Peruparanan’ who was patronised by pandyas  regime.

There are many features associated with this temple that attract millions of devotees from all over India. Karpaka is a tree that is capable of giving whatever you wish. Since Lord Ganesha also fulfills all your wishes, the temple is named as ‘Karpaka Vinayakar’ temple. Since it is situated in the ‘Pillayarpatti’ hills, the temple is also called as ‘pillayarpatti vinayakar’ temple.

• The statue of Lord Ganesha faces the north direction which is a strange phenomenon in Hindu temples. It is often thought that deities facing north give a good government and enhance the living conditions.
• This is one of the rarest places where you can find Lord Vinataka with two hand.
• The trunk of the Lord is carved in the right side and hence the god also has the name of ‘Valampuri Vinayakar’
• The deity is always adorned with gold covers and only during special occasions you can see the true glory of the rock carved statue.
• The main festival celebrated in the temple is ‘Ganesh Puja’ or ‘Pillaiyar Chadurthi’. It is a 10 day long festival and it would be a delight to watch the proceedings.