Your address will show here +12 34 56 78
JALAGANDESWARAR TEMPLE

(Element of Water)

Jambukeswarar temple is one of the five Hindu temples dedicated to Lord Shiva and is located in ThiruAanaikka in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. The five Shiva temples represent a primordial natural element – Earth, Fire, Air, Sky – with the Jambukeswarar temple representing Water (AppuLingam). This is an ancient, sprawling and magnificent temple which highlights the architectural splendour of the past. The temple complex is a whopping 18 acres of land. In ancient times, this place was densely populated with white Naaval trees.The temple was built about 2,500 years ago by the Emperor Kochengat Chola. It is believed that an elephant and a spider have worshiped the lord here and obtained salvation. The name of this temple is derived from this legend. “Thiru” is a respectful prefix, “Anai” means elephant and “koil” means temple in Tamil. Now it is known as “Thiruvanaikkaval”. 

Because of a curse, two Shivaganams (Lord Shiva’s security guards) namely, Pushpathanthan and Gnanatharul Maliyavan were born as an elephant and a spider respectively. In order to seek relief from their curse, it is believed that they worshiped the lord of this temple. There had been a forest of Jambu (naaval) trees near the Chandratheertha tank (filled with the water of the river Cauvery) here and Lord Shiva is said to have appeared under one of the trees as a Swayambu lingam.The spider is believed to have spun a web to give shelter to the Lord whereas the elephant would bring water in its trunk for performing Abhishekam. The elephant would destroy the web and the spider would promptly spin it again. This continued for a while.

 

  • Text Hover

One day, the spider decided to stop the elephant and went inside the trunk of the elephant and bit it. It is believed that the elephant hit its trunk on the floor to shake the spider off but in the process, both of them died. The Lord was pleased with their relentless devotion and both the spider and the elephant attained salvation (moksham). Since Pushpathanthan (born as elephant) fulfilled his penance by performing abhishekam, he was relieved of his curse and returned back to Shivalogam to take his place as a Sivaganam.  However, the spider’s wish of building a temple around the lingam was not fulfilled and hence it was born again as King Kochengat Chola.It is believed that King Kochengat Chola built 70 “Madakkoils”. The distinguishing feature of a Madakkoil is that it is not easily approachable by an elephant. Sensing the story of his previous birth, he built these temples at an elevation and there are a few steps that need to be climbed before seeing the lord. Also, the sanctum sanctorum’s (Karpagragam) entrance is narrow such that no elephant can enter it. Another legend associated with this place is that of sage Jambu who worshiped Lord Shiva here. Lord Shiva granted darshan to the sage and offered him a Naaval fruit (blackberry) as prasad. While consuming the prasad, the sage swallowed the seeds too as he thought it a sin to spit the seeds. The seeds began to grow into a tree and pierced his head thus leading to his salvation. As Lord Shiva granted salvation to sage Jambu here, he is praised as “Sri Jambukeswarar” and this place is known as “Jambukeswaram”.

It is also believed that Goddess Parvathi (as Akilandeswari) performed penance in the Jambu forest here in Thiruvanaikkoil. She created a lingam out of sand and water from the river Cauvery and installed it under the same Jambu (Venn Naaval) tree which is believed to have emerged from Saint Jambu. This lingam is known as “Appu Lingam” (Water Lingam). Pleased with her penance, Lord Shiva gave darshan to Akhilandeswari and taught her the “Shiva Gnana Upadesa”. Akhilandeswari took the “Upadesa” (lessons) facing east from Lord Shiva, who stood facing the west. Hence this temple is also revered as a Upadesa Sthalam.Another interesting aspect related to this temple is that the “Wedding Festival” (Thiru Kalyanam) is not celebrated here. Also, the lord is not taken to the “Palli Arai” (bed chamber) at night. The reason behind this is that Lord Shiva here is seen as a guru (teacher) to Goddess Parvathi.

Another legend is that while constructing one of the temple’s wall, Lord Shiva came in the form of a saint (Vibhuthi Siddhar) and distributed sacred ash as the wages for the workers. This sacred ash turned into gold proportionate to the work done by the workers. This particular wall (4th corridor) is called “Thiruneetru Madhil”. “Thiruneeru means sacred ash and “Madhil” means wall in Tamil. This wall is well over 8000 feet long (2436+2436+1493+1493 feet), 35 feet high and 6 feet thick. There is a shrine for Vibhuthi Siddhar near the Brahma Theertham.

Another legend associated with this place is that of a Chola king from Uraiyur (near Trichy) who was an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva. Once he was taking a dip in the Cauvery river when his necklace fell in to the river. He prayed to the lord to get his necklace back. At the same time, a priest from this temple was fetching water in a pot for the lord’s abishekam. This chain went into the priest’s pot and was discovered at the time of the abishekam.Lord Shiva of this temple is believed to have been worshipped by Goddess Parvathy, Lord Brahma, Lord Mahavishnu, Suryan, Chandran, Ashta Thikbalahars and Sages Agasthiar, Jambu and Gowthamar. Goddess Akilandeswari of this temple is very famous and she attracts a large number of devotees. “Akhilandeshwari” means “the ruler of the universe” (“Akilam” means universe, “Aanda” means ruler, and “Eswari” means Goddess in Tamil).The ear ring of Goddess Akilandeswari is known as “Thadangam”. It is quite big and prominent. It is believed that earlier she used to look very aggressive and furious. Sri Adi Sankaracharya controlled her anger and contained it in the earrings as Chakras. One is called the “Shiva Chakra” and the other one is called the “Srichakra”. Also, to reduce her anger, Lord Vinayaka’s shrine is placed in front of her and Lord Murugan’s shrine is behind her.During the noon pooja, this temple’s priest dresses as a woman before performing the pooja. This is done to signify the fact that Goddess Parvathi herself is offering prayers to the Lord.It is believed that Lord Ranganathar stayed at Srirangam only to worship Lord Jambugeswarar of this temple. To commemorate this event, every year the idol of Lord Ranganadhar is brought here and kept for a day. Next day, the idol is taken back to his temple at Srirangam. During this event, the idol of Lord Ranganathar is beautifully decorated and this procession is witnessed by a large crowd.

It is believed that Saint Arunagirinathar prayed to Lord Murugan here such that he might be protected from thoughts of lust. Lord Murugan acceded to his request and captured a demon that is believed to personify lust. This demon can be seen beneath Lord Murugan’s foot. Such a depiction of Lord Murugan cannot be seen anywhere else.Saint Arunagirinadhar has also sang songs in praise of Lord Murugan of this temple in his revered Thirupugazh. It is believed that Goddess Akilandeswari blessed poet Kalamega Pulavar here with the talent to write poems.There are 9 Theerthams (holy water) in this temple. In front of the main deity, there is a grilled window with 9 holes in it. We have to worship the Lord only through these 9 holes. Doing so is considered to be equivalent to taking a dip in each of the 9 Theerthams.There is a pillar in the “Mahamandapam” of Goddess Akhilandeswari’s temple where we can see a magnificent sculpture of Lord Ekapadeswarar.  The lord is flanked by Lord Brahma and Lord Mahavishnu on either side mounted on their respective vahanams. 

Monolithic stone pillars can be seen in the halls (mandapam) situated at the third entrance of the temple (Aariyavittan tower). Another significant sculpture to be seen here is a huge chain carved out of stone.  There are also pillars where the 12 zodiac signs are beautifully engraved. The 1000-pillared hall houses a large number of intricately carved reliefs.

  • Text Hover

This is one of the 276 Devara Paadal Petra Shiva Sthalams and 60th Shiva Sthalam on the northern bank of the river Cauvery in Chozha Nadu (Vadakarai).Lord Shiva in this temple is a Swayambumurthi (self-manifested).In this temple, Lord Jambukeswarar is facing west and Goddess Akilandeswari is facing the east.This is one of the “Pancha Bootha Sthalams” and it represents Water (Appu).This is also one of the Sakthi Peetams.This is the first of the 70 Madakkovils built by King Kochengat Cholan.All the three saints (Moovar) have rendered hymns on Lord Shiva of this temple. The east facing main tower (Rajagopuram) has 13-tiers and the west facing Rajagopuram has 7-tiers. This temple has 7 main towers and 5 corridors. 

CONTACT US

Madhura Towers 219 – 223, 9th Street, Dr Rajendra Prasad Rd, Opp. Lakshmi Complex,

Gandhipuram, Tamil Nadu-641012.

Phone: 94 88 30 34 92 / 93.

Web Site: www.bogaafoundation.org

 

Our Visitors

0 1 1 5 5 6

 
Volunteer with us
close slider
This Privacy Policy is entered into by and between Bogaa Foundation on behalf of itself and its affiliates, group companies, related entities, and licensors (the “Organization”).
The organization understands that your privacy is important to you and that you care about how your information is used and shared. We respect and value the privacy of everyone who visits our website and will only collect and use information in ways that are useful to you and in a manner consistent with your rights and our obligations under applicable law.
This Privacy Policy applies to our use of any and all data collected by us in relation to your use of our website. Please read this Privacy Policy carefully and ensure that you understand it. Your acceptance of our Privacy Policy is deemed to occur upon your first visit to our website. If you do not accept and agree to this Privacy Policy, you must stop using our website immediately.
PURPOSE
The Organization is committed to international compliance with data protection laws. This Privacy Policy applies worldwide to the Organization and is based on globally accepted, basic principles of data protection. The Privacy Policy provides one of the necessary framework conditions for cross-border data transmission among the Organization.
APPLICATION OF NATIONAL LAWS
This Privacy Policy comprises the internationally accepted data privacy principles without replacing the existing national laws. It supplements the national data privacy laws. The relevant national law will take precedence in the event that it conflicts with this Privacy Policy, or it has stricter requirements than this Privacy Policy. The content of this Privacy Policy will be observed in the absence of corresponding national legislation. In the event of conflicts between national legislation and the Privacy Policy, the Organization will work to find a practical solution that meets the purpose of the Privacy Policy.
SCOPE
This Privacy Policy applies only to your use of our website. It does not extend to any websites that are linked to from our website (whether we provide those links or whether they are shared by other users). We have no control over how your data is collected, stored or used by other websites and we advise you to check the privacy policies of any such websites before providing any data to them.
Our website is not intended for individuals under 18 years of age, without the valid consent of their parent or guardian. If we learn that we have collected or received personal information from an individual under age 18 without verification of legal guardian or parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under age 18, please contact us at [email protected].

DATA COLLECTION
Some data will be collected automatically by our website, other data will only be collected if you voluntarily submit it and consent to us using it for the purposes set out herein. Automatically collected data includes (1) Information about the browser type and version used; (2) your operating system; (3) your Internet service provider; (4) your IP address; (5) Date and time of access. In the event of abuse, we may block certain IP addresses.
USE OF DATA
a) All personal data is stored securely in a manner that reasonably protects it from misuse and loss and from unauthorized access, modification or disclosure.
b) We use your data to provide the best possible services to you. This includes: (i) Providing and managing your account; (ii) Providing and managing your access to our website; (iii) Personalising and tailoring your experience on our website; (iv) Supplying our products and services to you; (v) Personalising and tailoring our products and services for you; (vi) Responding to communications from you; (vii) Supplying you with newsletters, alerts etc. via email, that you may have subscribed to and that you may unsubscribe or opt-out at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link from such emails or from your account profile; (viii) Market research and (ix) Analysing your use of our website and gathering feedback to enable us to continually improve our website and your user experience.
c) In some cases, the collection of data may be a statutory or contractual requirement, and we will be limited in the products and services we can provide you without your consent for us to be able to use such data.
d) With your permission and/or where permitted by law, we may also use your data for marketing purposes which may include contacting you by email, telephone, text message, post and/or messaging services with information, news and offers on our products and/or services. We will not, however, send you any unsolicited marketing or spam and will take all reasonable steps to ensure that we fully protect your rights and comply with our obligations under the applicable relevant laws.
e) Advertisers whose content appears on our website may engage in what is known as “behavioural advertising” – advertising which is tailored to your preferences, based on your activity. Your activity is monitored using Cookies, as detailed in our Cookie Policy. Please note that we do not control the activities of such advertisers, nor the information they collect and use.
f) Legal basis: We will ensure that your personal data is processed lawfully, fairly, and transparently, without adversely affecting your rights. We will only process your personal data if at least one of the following basis applies: (i) you have given consent to the processing of your personal data for one or more specific purposes; (ii) processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or in order to take steps at the request of you prior to entering into a contract; (iii) processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject; (iv) processing is necessary to protect the vital interests of you or of another natural person; (v) processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller and/or processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by us or by a third party, except where such interests are overridden by the fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject which require protection of personal data, in particular where the data subject is a child.
g) Sensitive Information: Sensitive information as defined under the relevant national data privacy laws, will be used by us only: (i) for the primary purpose for which it was obtained; (ii) for a secondary purpose that is directly related to the primary purpose; and/or (iii) with your consent; or where required or authorized by applicable law.

STORAGE OF DATA
a) We only keep your data for as long as we need to in order to use it as described t.in the above section (Use of Data), and/or for as long as we have your permission to keep it. In any event, we will conduct an annual review to ascertain whether we need to keep your data. Your data will be deleted if we no longer need it for the purpose for which it was obtained, we will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify your data.
b) Some or all of your data may be stored or transferred outside of your country of domicile You accept and agree to this by using our website and submitting information to us. If we do store or transfer data outside of your country of domicile, we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your data is treated as safely and securely as it would be within your country of domicile.
c) Data security is of great importance to us, and to protect your data we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure data collected through our website.
Notwithstanding the security measures that we take, it is important to remember that the transmission of data via the internet may not be completely secure and that you are advised to take suitable precautions when transmitting data to us via the internet.

SHARING OF DATA
a) We may share your data within the Organization and we may contract with third parties to supply products and services to you on our behalf. These may include payment processing, delivery of goods, search engine facilities, advertising, and marketing. In some cases, the third parties may require access to some or all of your data. Where any of your data is required for such a purpose, we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your data will be handled safely, securely, and in accordance with your rights, our obligations, and the obligations of the third party under applicable relevant law.
b) We may compile statistics about the use of our website including data on traffic, usage patterns, user numbers, sales and other information. All such data will be anonymized and will not include any personally identifying information. We may from time to time share such data with third parties. Data will only be shared and used within the bounds of the law.
In certain circumstances, we may be legally required to share certain data held by us, which may include your personal information, for example, where we are involved in legal proceedings, where we are complying with the requirements of legislation, a court order, or a governmental authority. we do not require any further consent from you in order to share your data in such circumstances and will comply as required by any legally binding request that is made of us.

USER OPTIONS
a) When you submit information via our website, you may be given options to restrict our use of your data. We aim to give you strong controls on our use of your data (including the ability to opt-out of receiving emails from us which you may do by unsubscribing using the links provided in our emails and by managing your account preferences).
b) you may also wish to sign up to one or more of the preference services operating in your country. These may help to prevent you receiving unsolicited marketing. Please note, however, that these services will not prevent you from receiving marketing communications that you have consented to receive.
c) It is important to us that your data is up to date. We will take reasonable steps to make sure that your data is accurate, complete and up to date. If you find that the information we have is not up to date or is inaccurate, please advise us as soon as practicable so we can update our records and ensure we can continue to provide quality services to you.

RIGHT TO WITHDRAW INFORMATION
a) You may access certain areas of our website without providing any data at all. However, to use all features and functions available on our website you may be required to submit or allow for the collection of certain data.
b) You may restrict your internet browser’s use of Cookies. For more information, see our Cookie Policy.
c) You may withdraw your consent for us to use your personal data at any time by deleting your account or by contacting us using the details set out herein below, and we will delete your data from our systems. However, you acknowledge this may limit our ability to provide the best possible products and services to you.

ACCESS TO DATA
You may access your personal data we hold about you and to update and/or correct it, subject to certain exceptions. If you wish to access your personal data, please access it through your account.
On request by you, we will not charge any fee for your access request but may charge an administrative fee for providing a copy of your personal data, unless otherwise requested by you, the information shall be provided in a commonly used electronic form.
In order to protect your personal data, we may require identification from you before releasing the requested information.

SUMMARY RIGHTS
You have the right to: (i) request access to, deletion of or correction of, your personal data held by us; (ii) complain to a supervisory authority; (iii) be informed of what data processing is taking place; (iii) restrict processing; (iv) data portability; (v) object the processing of your personal data; (vi) automated decision-making and profiling.
To enforce any of the foregoing rights or if you have any other questions about our website or this Privacy Policy, please contact us using the details set out herein below.

AUTOMATED DECISION-MAKING AND PROFILING
a) In the event that we use personal data for the purposes of automated decision-making and those decisions have a legal (or similarly significant effect) on you, you have the right to challenge such decisions, requesting human intervention, expressing their own point of view, and obtaining an explanation of the decision from us.
b) The right described in the section above does not apply in the following circumstances: (i) the decision is necessary for the entry into, or performance of, a contract between you and us; (ii) the decision is authorized by law; or (iii) you have given your explicit consent.
c) Where we use your personal data for profiling purposes, the following shall apply: (i) clear information explaining the profiling will be provided, including its significance and the likely consequences; (ii) appropriate mathematical or statistical procedures will be used; (iii) technical and organisational measures necessary to minimise the risk of errors and to enable such errors to be easily corrected shall be implemented; and (iv) all personal data processed for profiling purposes shall be secured in order to prevent discriminatory effects arising out of profiling.

CONTACT US
a) If you have any questions about our website or this Privacy Policy, please contact us by email at [email protected]. Please ensure that your query is clear, particularly if it is a request for information about the data we hold about you.

CHANGES TO THE PRIVACY POLICY
We may change this Privacy Policy as we may deem necessary from time to time, or as may be required by law. Any changes will be immediately posted on our website and you will be deemed to have accepted the terms of the Privacy Policy on your first use of our website following the alterations. We recommend that you check this page regularly to keep up-to-date.

LANGUAGE
This Privacy Policy was prepared and written in English. Any non-English translations of this Privacy Policy which may be made available are provided for convenience only and are not legally binding.

APPLICABLE FOR PERSONS FROM THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA
a) Legal Framework
It has been concluded by the European Commission that particular countries outside of the European Economic Area (the “EEA” which consists of all European Union member states, plus Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein) require to adequately protect personal data. This can be reviewed under European Commission adequacy decision. Where data is being transferred from the EEA to other countries, we shall comply with legal frameworks that ascertain an equivalent level of protection with European Union law.
b) EU-US and Swiss-US Privacy Shield frameworks
We shall comply with the EU-US and Swiss-US Privacy Shield Frameworks as set forth by the US Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of personal information from European Union member countries and Switzerland, respectively.
c) Model Contract Clauses
The Organization shares personal information within the Organization and to other trusted businesses or persons to process it for us, based on our guidelines and in compliance with this Privacy Policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures. Your information may be transferred, or stored and processed in other countries outside of where you live for the purposes as described in this Privacy Policy. These data transfers are necessary to provide the services to you and to globally operate and provide our products to you. We utilize standard contract clauses, rely on the European Commission's adequacy decisions about certain countries, as applicable, and obtain your consent for these data transfers to other countries.
d) DPO
If, after contacting us, you feel that your concerns have not been addressed to your satisfaction, you can contact our data protection officer (“DPO”) at [email protected].