Madurai -Koodal Azhagar Temple

1 Sep'2011: This temple also known as "Thirukoodal" is located near the Madurai Meenakshi Temple. This is one the 108 Divyadesams celebrated by Vaishnavites. Perialwar has sung praises of the Lord Azhagar here. The Deity can be seen in three different forms:
In the lower portion of the temple, the lord appears as “Viyooga soundararajan” in sitting posture called veetriruntha thirukolam under Aadhiseshan. In the second portion the lord is in sleeping posture and known as Andhara Vaanathu Empiraan.In the final portion the lord appears as Sooriya Narayanan in nindra tirukolam or standing posture. There are three different sanctums one above the other.
Koodal is another name for Madurai. It also means "meeting point" - Madurai is a place where all gods and goddesses, devas and saints had congregated to witness the wedding of Madurai Meenakshi with Lord Sunderaswarar. This temple is unique in the sense that this is the only Divya Desam among the 108 to have Navagrahas Sannithi located in the Temple.
The LOrd here is known as Koodal Azhagar(Azhagar means the beautiful one) and his consort or Thayar as Maduravalli Thayar ( also known as varagunavalli, maragadha valli and vagulavalli)
We also visited sub sanctums of Chakrathalwar, Lakshmi Narasimhar & Andal.
After this visit we were quite hungry and went to a nearby cafe 'Murugan Idly' for tiffin. It was a small but neat place and the food was good - we were served piping hot idli's followed by delicious onion uthappam's. The cafe also served Jil Jil (cool cool) Jigarthadna - a special beverage that has its origins in Madurai. In Hindi it means Cold Heart. Please log onto website for details and recipe for jigarthanda: http://sukanya-keralaiyer.blogspot.com/2007/05/jigar-thanda.html