Ayappan Temple Villivakkam
The chronicle of the formation of the Sri Ayyappan Temple situated in Villivakkam,Perumal Koil North Mada Street, ChennI -600 0049, Tamilnadu, India on today.
The foremost and preliminary efforts for formation of this Sri Ayyappan Temple , Villivakkam, Chennai-600 049, Tamilnadu, India were taken by a youth who was born in the year 1963 in Uchakkadai , Kerala (Trivandrum District) to the couple Sri Narayanan and Smt Sankari Narayanan with the blessings of Sri Narayana Guru, he learnt Vedas in the Veda Patashala in his childhood. He got attracted by Lord Ayyappan at the age of 13 and visited Sabari Malai, the name of this youth is Sri C.N. Sukumaran. He came to Chennai at the age of 23 for a business purpose and took a room in today’s Venkateswara Hotel situated in Villivakkam Station Road, Chennai, The only wish of Gurusamy Sri C.N.Sukumaran was to build the whole temple with Black Granite Stones only.
Mr.C.N.Sukumaran who visited chennai has joined hands with few friends of Aminjikarai , Chennai and few more friends of Villivakkam and visited Sabarimalai every year, he thought to perform the regular prayer every year by doing Lamp Pooja, and provide Food donation to all devotees and poor peoples, together they decided to perform these rituals at the Villivakkam Agastheeswarar Sivan Temple Ground and executed the same with great appraisals. Sri C.N.Sukumaran was a Gurusamy and leaded the devotees. At that time they all thought that they should form a team of Ayyappa Devotees and about thirty four ( 34 ) people joined together and decided to form a team in the name of “Sri Ayyappa Bhaktajana Sabha”with the lead head of Sri Karuppanna samy, M.A.B.L. and this was executed on 15.12.1972 affirming an oath in front of Lord Siva at the Villivakkam Agastheeswarar Sivan Temple.
As the Sabha Team decided to have a place for them to accumulate regularly, they bought a place measuring about 2790 Sq. Ft. situated at Villivakkam Perumal Koil, North Mada Street, Villivakkam, Chennai-40. This place was bought in three three parts in three different periods in the respective names of the Trustees in position at that time. A Bhajanai Madam was formed and all sorts of Poojas, rituals, etc. were started to perform through the Gurusamy C.N. Sukumar.Eventually the Sabha Team had a holy wish to make this Bhajanai Madam as a Temple. As a first step, decision taken to create an Vigraha (Idol) of Sri Ayyappan, and as per the temple regulations decided to make the Idol in Black Granite Stone and this task was handed over to the Architectural Expert Professor Mr. Vanmai Nathan Sabathi of Mahabalipuram and the Idol was made on a good auspicious day Mr. Ganapathi Sabathi has been brought to the Bhajanai Madam on 12.12.1980.
The only wish of Gurusamy C.N.Sukumaran was to build the whole temple with Black Granite Stones only. But all the team members of the Sabha were ordinary people only. Inspite of that no one retracted, and decided to build the whole Temple with only Black Granite stones as per the desire of Gurusamy C.N.Sukumaran. And before that they all decided to build a Holy Temple as per the regulations and this responsibility was handed over to Kanippaiyur Mr. Krishnan Namboodiri of Kerala to build three divine deities ( Sri Vinayagar, Sri Ayyappan, Sri Murugan ) Temple & the sketch was created as per the holy agendas started the work to build the Holy Temple. The Temple was formed in such a way that the created Divine Idol will suitably fit into the temple. This formation onus was handed over to Sri Gomathi Sankar Sabathi of Tenkasi and Team and they started their solidarity work.
The responsibility of building the temple for Vinayagar was borne by the Senior Team Member on that day Sri P. Sakthivel and the same was implemented in his own cost by Villivakkam Sri Nataraja Sapathi and the Vinayagar Temple chore was completed. The Vinayagar Idol was created and furnished by Sri Gomathi Sankar of Tenkasi as said above. All the expenses to make the Vinayagar Temple active was completely beard by Sri Saktivel itself.
As the Next step, the responsibility of formation of Sri Balamurugan Temple was completely taken by Sri B. Dayalan of Padi, Chennai and Team and this holy temple work was completed. The task of creating the Balamurugan Idol and building the Temple was borne by Sri Gomathi Sankar Sabathi.
In continuation of this temple work, as per the collective decision to build Sri Ayyappan Temple, Black Granite Stones were brought from Trichy, as per the sketch, all the building work of the Temple was done in a beautiful and amazing way by Mr. Tenkasi Gomathi Sankar and Team excellently.
Temple Constructions been completed and the date of Consecration Ceremony was fixed on a sacred day of 14.07.1994 in presence of Sri Srinivasan, Secretary, All India Ayyappa Seva Sangam, Sri Meenatchi Sundaram, Tiruvidangur Devasthana Leaders in a formaly way under the headship of Tantri Sri Brahmasri Tirumeni Neelakandaru after accumulating various vedic poets performing all vedic rituals, the Consecration Ceremony was celebrated immensely. All the routines in this temple were performed as done in the Sri Sabarimalai Temple in the authentic kerala tradition by the Namboodiris appointed by the Sabarimalai Chief Tantri Sri Neelakantaru and the poojas are being performed systematically even today. The foremost adoration was performed by Tirumeni Sri Narayana Namboothiri who worked as the Melsanthi in the Sri Sabharimalai. The Villivakkam Sri Ayyappan Temple also has the credit that this is the only Temple where the holy God Idols were fixed only after the Sadathara Pooja.
Deities in the temple:- The Presiding Deity Swamy Ayyappan in this Temple. The Sub-Deities (Upa Murthis) are Sri Sivan, Sri Ramar, Sri Seetha, Lakshmanar, Anjaneyar, Naagam, Navagrahas, Sri Bhuvaneswari Amman, and Sri Maha Vishnu, Sri Dakshina Moorthy, Sri Durga being as the Koshta Moorthis.