Temple's Speciality:



Somangalam, a village close to Chennai is the seat of Kamakshi Amman. This temple is one of the nine temples dedicated to navagrahas around Porur. This is a Chandran Sthalam. The village itself gets its name from Chandran or Soman as he prayed to The Lord at this temple to get rid of his sin.






Navagraha

Chandra

Direction

North West

Metal

Silver

Diety

Varuna

Gem

Pearl

Element

Water

Color

White

Other Names

Soma (in Sanskrit) Moon (in English) Som, Rajnipati, Shashi, Kalaa, Nidhi, Indu, Shashank, Sudhakar, Rakesh, Rajnish

Mount (Vahana)

Chariot pulled by an antelope

Consort

27 Nakshatras

Mahadasha

10 Years

Moolavar

Somanatheeswarar

Thala Virutcham

Sarakkonrai Maram

Theertham

Sandeeswara Theertham

Amman / Thayar

Sri Kamakshi Amman

Age of Temple

1000-2000 years old

City

Somangalam

District

Chennai

State

Tamil Nadu


Address:

Arulmigu Kamakshi Amman Sametha Somanatheswarar Temple,Somangalam,Kancheepuram District, PIN CODE:602 109

Phone no:+91-4362-262 499, 9344589244, 9443586453.

Opening Time:

The temple is open from 8 AM to 10 AM & 5 PM to 7 PM.

Festivals:

Waxing period of the moon is called Sukla Paksham or Valarpirai.Chandran gets back all his beauty and attains full brightness on Full moon day or Pournami.From Pournami to the full moon day he again starts loosing his beauty and brightness till the New moon day or Ammavasai.This waning period of the moon is called Krishna Paksham or Theipirai. Both Ammavasai and Pournami are celebrated here with much fervour.

Temple History:

King Dakshan gave all his 27 daughters in marriage to Chandran. Those 27 wives of Chandran are the 27 stars in Tamil Calendar. As Chandran's favourite was Rohini and he spent most of his time with her, the others complained about this to their father. King Dakshan asked Chandran to treat all of them equally, which Chandran refused. An angry Dakshan, cursed Chandran that all his beauty and brightness will disappear slowly everyday. A worried Chandran, on the advice of Lord Brahma, then performed penance on Lord Shiva.

Lord Shiva appeared before him and adorned his forehead with the crescent–shaped Chandran. Shiva then came to be known as Chandrasekara. He blessed Chandran to regain his beauty and brightness slowly day by day.

Greatness Of Temple:

When Lord Vishnu was distributing the Amrutham amongst the Devas, at the behest of Sukracharya, one of the asuras in the guise of a deva consumed the nectar. Suryan and Chandran noticed this and complained to Lord Vishnu. An angry Vishnu used his chakrayudham (discus) to cut the asura into two and threw them away. The head joined with a snake's body to become Rahu Bhagavan. The body portion kept growing because the asura had consumed Amrutham.This later joined with the head of a snake and became Kethu Bhagavan.Now, Rahu and Kethu did not forgive Suryan and Chandran. Rahu went after Chandran and started consuming him.

This is one of the temples that Chandran prayed to Lord Siva and got his blessings. Shiva blessed Chandran with the power to grow back to full size in 15 days after being consumed by Rahu. That is why we have the waxing and waning moon. Shiva also blessed Chandran by adorning Chandran on his forehead so that anyone who prays to Shiva will have to pray to Chandran too.

Inscriptions in the temple have brought to light the fact that this temple was built by Kulothunga Cholan. Somaskanthan the local king, was one of those who constructed this temple. While in the midst of the temple construction, an enemy King saw the opportunity and mounted an attack. The king was totally taken aback and was absolutely not expecting or prepared for this. He prayed to The Lord here to save him and his kingdom. The Lord immediately obliged by directing His vehicle Nandhi to fight the advancing army of the enemy. Nandhi is supposed to have blown away the enemy with one big snort. Lord Shiva then directed Nandhi to face East permanently and guard the kingdom against future attacks. The Nandhi is seen with his back to Lord Shiva and facing East. This is a rare feature in any Shiva temple.