Kapaleeswarar Temple

Mylapore is one part of Chennai that is always in the festive mood owing to the innumerous temples that dot this area. But one of the most celebrated ancient saivite temple has to be the Kapaaleeswarar temple.

Earlier it was claimed that the temple was built in 7th century by Pallava kings who were visited by the great 4 saivite saints Tirugnanasambandhar, Appar. The temple also finds a mention in Arunagirinathar’s Thirupugazh but it clearly states the temple as being on the sea shore. Hence there is uncertainty as to if the temple was destroyed by portugese settlers in 15th century to build Santhome church or by sea erosion which made them shift the temple inwards. The present temple is said to be only 300 years old built by the Vijayanagara kings using some of the fragmentary inscriptions of the old temple.
The famous temple tank on the west side was built in the 18th century by Nawabs of the Carnatic and in recognition muslims were allowed to use it during Muharram. The temple’s spectacular 120 feet tall gopuram was built in 1906 with stucco figurines to narrate the important puranic legends.
Despite the chronological ambiguity the temple has turned out to be much more than just a place of worship. Today the temple is a cultural center in the heart of mylapore. The Aruvathimoovar festival and float festival are sought after by people of from all parts of the country.

Photo:Delcampe
Source: Madras Rediscovered | S.Muthiah

Luz Church, 1516

If given a choice always choose a city with history over a hi-fi metropolitan city and chennai seems to have the best of the both worlds! Right in between the busy and buzzing lanes of mylapore lies one of the country’s oldest European monuments- “The Church of Our Lady of Light” in 1516.The 500 year old Church was built in the Gothic style with Baroque ornamentation, the style precedes even the colonial architectural style complete with colonnaded verandahs, wooden beam ceiling and carved staircases.This two storied structure has tombstones engraved in Aramaic, Portuguese, Latin and English. A flight of steps within the church leads to a mezzanine floor. It was built by Portugese explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral who also discovered Brazil. In 1500 AD he sailed from Lisbon to Calicut with 8 other sailors in search of opportunities and they developed the Malacca fort for their trade. They established Pulicat Lake as a rest stop on the Eastern Coast to dock the ships and unload goods. Legend has it that once when they were travelling to Pulicat, they were carried away by a storm and were lost at sea. Suddenly a bright light appeared out of nowhere and led them to shores of Mylapore. They followed the light to a place in the forest and as a tribute for bringing them to safery they built the Nossa Senhora da Luz or the Church of Our Lady of light in 1516. The shrine is popularly known as Luz Church or Kaatu koil ( Forest Shrine) and the name lent itself to the neighbourhood too as Luz Corner and Luz Church Road. Luz is the portugese word for Light. How a portugese word has creeped into our vocabulary so unseemingly is simply astonishing. The Luz church was damaged by Golconda Army from 1662-1673 and ravaged by Hyder Ali’s troops between 1780-1782 but it still stood the test of time to witness its Quincentenary celebrations in 2016 and stands as a testimony to the once European citadel called Madras.