Nellaiappar Temple, Tirunelveli
நெல்லையப்பர் கோயில், திருநெல்வேலி
Why this temple matters
In the old town of Tirunelveli on the Tamiraparani river, twin temples of Shiva as Nellaiappar and the Goddess Kanthimathi stand joined by a chain of halls — a great Shaiva shrine famous for stone pillars that ring with music and for the copper hall where Shiva is said to have danced.
History
The Nellaiappar temple stands at Tirunelveli, an ancient town on the banks of the Tamiraparani in the far south of Tamil Nadu. It is a Paadal Petra Sthalam, sung in the Tevaram hymns of the Nayanmar saints, with origins under the Pandyas and Cholas and its great mandapas and towers raised in the later centuries under Nayaka rule. The temple is really two — the shrine of Shiva as Nellaiappar and, beside it, the shrine of the Goddess Kanthimathi — joined into a single vast complex, at the devotional heart of a town whose name itself recalls the lord who guarded a devotee's paddy.
Architecture
The complex is entered through tall gopurams and unfolds through pillared halls of the mature Dravidian manner, the twin temples of Nellaiappar and Kanthimathi linked by the Sangili Mandapam, the 'chain hall'. Its most celebrated feature is the group of musical pillars — clusters of slender stone columns, carved from single blocks, that sound different musical notes when struck. Tirunelveli is honoured as the Tamira Sabhai, the copper hall, one of the five sabhas where Shiva is said to have danced his cosmic dance, and the temple holds a golden-lily tank and richly sculptured mandapas among the finest of the Nayaka age.
Legends
The name Nellaiappar — the lord of the nel, the paddy — comes from a beloved legend: a devotee had spread his harvested paddy to dry when the rains threatened, and the lord held back the downpour, sheltering the grain, so that he became known as the guardian of the paddy, Venuvananathar of the bamboo forest. The Goddess Kanthimathi shines beside him as the light of the shrine. Tirunelveli's place among the five dance-halls, as the copper sabha, sets its worship within the great tradition of Shiva Nataraja, whose foremost hall is the golden one at Chidambaram.
Festivals
The temple's year is marked by the Aadi and the Brahmotsavam festivals, the float festival on the golden-lily tank, and the Arudra Darshan sacred to Shiva as the dancer. The car festival draws great crowds through the streets of the old town. Music has a natural home here, in the temple of the singing pillars, and festival days fill the long halls with lamps, song and pilgrims.
The Experience
Nellaiappar rewards the visitor who lingers among its halls: the ring of the musical pillars, the sculptured mandapas, the twin sanctums of god and goddess joined by the chain hall, and the river town around it. Tirunelveli sits in the deep south of Tamil Nadu, an easy journey from Thiruchendur on the coast and from the land's end at Kanyakumari, and joins them into a single pilgrimage of the far south.