Govindaraja Perumal Kovil – Divya Desam #40

My father-in-law is from Vinjamur and the Vinjamur family have been trustees of the Govindaraja Perumal Kovil at Chidambaram. Ofcourse, Chidambaram is famous for the Thillai Nataraja, Mahadev as Nataraja. A beautiful legend about the Chidambaram temple is as follows –

Bhagwan Shiva and Ma Parvati had a dance competition and Bhagwan Shiva was declared the winner. Ma Parvati couldn’t accept the verdict and asked for a re-match. The Chidambaram temple complex was built by Vishwakarma, the architect for the Gods for this purpose. When the question about who should be the judge arose, they chose Bhagwan Vishnu. Everyone felt that Bhagwan Vishnu will only speak the truth so he can be a good judge…. only Bhagwan Shiva knew that MahaVishnu will speak the truth but it depended on the context :):). Mahadev knew his brother-in-law well !!

Mahavishnu immediately agreed to be the judge and said, I will lie down and enjoy the performance, please dance to your hearts content. All the Devas descended to watch Bhagwan Shiva and Ma Parvati dance. Unfortunately, Ma Parvati couldn’t keep up with Bhagwan Shiva’s tandav and everyone agreed that Mahadev was the winner… Well, Mahavishnu was democratic so he went with the majority and declared Bhagwan Shiva the winner. Ma Parvati went off in a huff and her temple is at a distance and she blesses us as Ma Durga :).

That’s how Nataraja came to be at Chidambaram and ofcourse right next door is Govindaraja Perumal, Mahavishnu who was the judge and totally mesmerised by the dance recital.

As soon as we got married, Krishnan and I visited the Chidambaram temple and then a few more times as long as we were in Chennai. For some reason, we just couldn’t go to Chidambaram and get Govindaraja Perumal’s darshan till Jan 2023.

Jan 22, 2023 – Chennai to Chidambaram

Kousalya couldn’t join us on this trip, so Nachi and Dhanush came along. We drove down from Chennai on the 21st. Stayed in Chidambaram at a Homestay called “Senthil Akam”. While it was clean and sufficient for an overnight stay, wouldn’t recommend it for a longer stay. The shared kitchen and shared bathrooms are not very convenient.

The road from Chennai is quite good and you have enough places to eat on the way, especially Adyar Ananda Bhavan aka A2B restaurants. The restrooms are not as clean, the biggest challenge being the wet floors. For some reason, we believe that splashing water in the restrooms makes them clean…. with tiled floors, it’s important to keep the floor dry.

Here is a short video that Google photos put together of our Jan 2023 trip –

Additional details – Chidambaram Temple

The entire temple complex is 40 acres. The other names by which the Chidambaram temple is known are Thiruchitrakoodam and Thiruchitrambalam. Mahavishnu and Mahadev have separate temples within the complex, the more famous being Mahadev as Nataraja. This temple is the birthplace of “Bharatnatyam”. In fact on the temple towers, all dance forms are depicted.

Rishi Panini created the Sanskrit Vyakaran (grammar) here… so much for the north-south fictional divide.

Govindaraja Perumal in this temple is facing the East and in “shayana” Kolam (lying down on Adiseshan). Thayar here is Pundareekavalli.

Some pictures of the temple complex –

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We have had the good fortune of getting Govindaraja Perumal’s darshan a couple of times since 2023 and hopefully we would get his darshan this year too. Govinda Govinda 🙏🏿

Listen to Sri Velakudi Krishnan as he explains about Thiruchitrakoodam or the Govindaraja Perumal Kovil in Chidambaram. Note : This is in Tamil and the subtitles are in machine language :):)