Arulmigu Kandaswamy Thirukoil - Thiruporur

Thiruporur as the very name suggests is the venue of war ("Por" in Tamil means war) situated between the 40 and 41 kilometer stones on the old Mahabalipuram road from Chennai. Thiruporur is an ancient little hamlet nestling around the imposing "Arulmigu Kandaswamy Thirukoil".





Some 450 years ago, the founding guru of Thiruporur Adhinam Srimad Chidambara Swamy who was an ardent worshipper of "Madurai Meenakshi Amman" had a vision of the Goddess bidding him to build a temple for Lord Muruga at Thirupporur. This happened when the savant challenged the Goddess that he would not eat until she graced him with her vision. Many days passed and Chidambaraswamy was almost in a coma. Suddenly he could hear the anklets of the Goddess Meenakshi and when he opened his eyes slightly he got a magnificent glimpse of the divine feet. The Goddess then raised the swamy to his feet and as her hands touched him, his skin turned golden. She told him that six earlier attempts to establish the temple had failed.








Chidambaraswamy reached Thiruporur to find it was a dense forest full of palm trees. He could hardly make out where the attempts to build the temple had been made. When he had despaired of locating the site, Lord Muruga himself appeared as a small boy and gave him the vision of the sanctum sanctorum. Thereafter, Chidambaraswamy unearthed the Swayambu Moortis of Lord Muruga with his consorts and established the temple. Those days Thiruporur was one of the hamlets under the reign of a minor Muslim ruler. When the Muslim ruler's daughter was afflicted with a form of virtigo, his minister "the dubash" suggested that the ruler seek the blessings of the nearby Chidambaraswamy as all other efforts to cure his young daughter had proved unfruitful. The Muslim ruler accepted the suggestion and prostrated, along with his daughter before Shri Chidambaraswamy. When Sri Chidambaraswamy applied the sacred ash to his daughter's body, she was cured instantly.











Thiruporur Temple
Thiruporur Temple Tank

The lord is a swayambu moorthi made of wood and hence abhishekam is performed to the metal idol in front of him

The Temple is now well connected from Tambaram and Chennai. There are busses plying from Tambaram to thiruporur (via Guduvancheri, Nellikuppam, Padur)

Busses are available from Broadway & Koyambedu





Broadway - Thiruporur bus





19B,519ext,M51D: Saidapet to Kelambakkam


M5,519: Adyar to Kelambakkam


M19A: Thiruvanmiyur to Kelambakkam


523,523A : Thiruvanmiyur to Thiruporur





Koyambedu - Thiruporur bus


570,119 : CMBT to Kelambakkam





Thiruporur Map :- (http://www.google.com/mapmaker?hl=en&q=kelambakkam&gw=30&ll=12.719303,80.189724&spn=0.024866,0.039139&z=14&t=h)