While the Nayanmar were busy traversing the land to celebrate ancient Sivasthalams, another set of poet saints called the Azhwar or Alvaar (ஆழ்வார்), did the same for Tamil Vaishnavism. Crisscrossing the land, they too sang in beautiful Tamil to immortalize ancient Vishnu temples in poems that have been compiled as the Naalayira Divya Prabandham (the 4000 Divine Compositions). They lived between the 6th and 9th centuries. The revered temples mentioned in these works are known as the Divya...

Image created using Canva Of the 276 Paadal Petra Sthalangal, six are located within the city of Chennai. Chennai is a rapidly enlarging city and it is difficult to define a boundary. Rather than sticking to strict administrative confines. we have elected to include the area within the Outer Ring Road. All six temples are within easy travel distance from anywhere in the city of Chennai.. These ancient and storied Sivan temples have existed in some form or the other for more than 1500 years...

பாடல்பெற்ற தலங்கள் "Paadal" means song in Tamil. "Petra" means received. "Sthalam" is from Sanskrit meaning temple. The phrase literally means "temples that have received songs". These are 276 Sivan temples that have dedicated pathigams in the Tamil devotional hymns the Thevaram. The Thevaram hymns were composed in the 7th to 8th centuries by the Moovar or "the three", Thirugnanasampanthar or Sampanthar, Thirunavukkarasar or Appar and Sundaramurthynayanar or Sundarar. These three belong to a...