Nootriettu Pillaiyar (108 Vinayaka) Temple Karaikudi

108 Pillayar Kovil is a temple located in the Karaikudi town that is part of the Sivaganga district in the state of Tamil Nadu. The temple is dedicated Lord Ganesha, who is the son of God Shiva and his wife, Goddess Parvati.

The temple is known all over the country because it houses 108 Ganesh murtis or idols. Many devotees flock to the temple in large numbers because of this special feature.

There is a story here, that the queen of Sivaganga was once instructed to visit 108 Vinayaka temples in order for one of her prayers to be fulfilled. As it would take time to go to locate and visit each of them, where Lord Vinayaka was the chief deity, the queen asked that a single temple be built housing 108 Vinayakas, where she could worship.

This entire temple is more of a long corridor housing 108 Vinayaka murtis in 2 rows of 54 each. The 54 Vinayakas on the top row are all Idampuri Vinayakas (meaning their trunks face to the left), while the 54 Vinayakars on the bottom row are Balamuri Vinayakas (trunks turned to the right).

Right in the middle of the arrangement are 8 Vinayakas (4 each in the top and bottom row), who are a bit different from the other murtis in the temple.

All the Vinayakas here have names following the Ashtotra Namavali of Ganapati.

There is said to be a reason for 108 being a recurring motif in Hinduism. There are 12 rashis and 9 Navagrahas, which when multiplied gives 108. The word Ganapati – representing the primary and foremost deity – has four syllables, which when used to divide 108, yields 27 – the number of nakshatras. This interpretation is used to reinforce that irrespective of the rashi, tithi, nakshtra etc.