Temple near Kumbakonam. For some reason visited this temple even though driver and me married. Cannot recall why but glad we did. We visited in January 2016. U see entrance to temple is a small one but attracts large number of devotees. This is a 10th century Chola Temple.
"The Presiding Deity is Arulmighu Arulvallanathar swamy, also called as "Arulmighu Uthvaganathar". Ambigai is Sri Gokilambal; also called as "Yazhinum menmozhiyaal"." We met a 28 year old software engineer from Bangalore
who came to pray for a good husband. So also met some men from Chennai. Devotees come with faith.
"It is said that if we perform special poojas for Gokilambal sametha Sri Kalyana sundar by offering him with the Garland, all the hurdles in our marriage gets cleared and the marriage takes place very quickly."
Typical garland is what you see.
This newly married couple and parent all smiles. "There is yet another speciality about this sthalam. One among the form of Lord Shiva is Arulmighu Dhakshina moorthy in Yoga ( in deep tapas) form and to get him out of that tapas, Manmadhan, the got of love threw an arrow of flower on Shiva Perumaan; Lord Shiva opened his 3rd eye from the forehead and made Manmadhan into Ash; Rathi devi wife of Manmadhan requested Lord Shiva to get her husband back and got him in this Thirumanancheri Sthalam only."
"Parvathi Devi performed Tapas in this sthalam to marry Shiva Perumaan and finally got married in this sthalam and because of this the sthalam is called as "Thiru Mananchery". Yet another special attraction of this temple is the posture of Shiva Perumaan in the form of Sri Kalyana Sundarar in the beautiful Marriage pose along with Ambal." This posture is what you see.
Inside temple. Devotees offer their pranams here. To know more about how to make offerings Click here
"As soon as you enter the temple bow down towards the Kodi maram followed by Sri Selva Ganapathy and then light 5 deepam on the ghee deepa mandapam and sit inside the marriage prarthanai mandapam."
Devotees lighting deepam. "Have the garland tied inside a small bag and keep it in the pooja room. Once the marriage is fixed, along with your wife/husband, dedicate the garland towards the temple; and the prarthanai is completed in this manner."
Outside the temple met these 3 interesting people. Young boy on right is a hand reader. He insisted on reading on my hand. Must say he was quite accurate about the past. When I offered some money said am a student, still learning.
A couple with child and parents. "There is a separate shrine for Rahu of the Navagraha. The childless will get a progeny if they worship him thus called Mangale Rahu and worshipping him consecutively on three New Moon days will remove the malefice effects of Navagraha."
Coconut guy was fun loving. Its water was much needed since hot. We had our meals there. At Rs 50/ per head we found it expensive and not value for money. By big city standards it was a steal. To know details about temple and puja Click here