Adavalleeswarar Temple, Munnur – History

Adavalleeswarar Temple, Munnur – History

Adavalleeswarar temple is believed to be more than 1300 years old as per inscriptions found here. Kulothunga Chola has contributed to the development of this already famous temple. Later Kulothunga Chola II did more contributions and made this temple grand and huge. He named this village ‘Munnootru Mangalam’ which over time got corrupted to today’s Munnur. Inscriptions in the Adavalleeswarar temple reveal that once upon a time, the village was prosperous receiving grants from the Cheras, Cholas, Pandyas, Pallavas and other territorial Kings like Nalliyakodan, Sambuvarayars, Athiyaman, Kangeya Rayan, Bangala Rayan etc.

The place was also known as Munnutrumangalam, Minnam and Mujnoor as per the inscriptions and ancient literature. Sirupanatrupadai is one of the Sangam Literature collections written by Nallur Nathathanar contains some significant notes about this ancient Munnur. During 1968, Mambalam Viyaragavalu Reddy, came here to worship Lord Shiva. The temple was in dilapidated condition during his visit. Lord Shiva appeared in his dreams and instructed him to reconstruct the temple. He told this to Kanchi Mutt Maha Periyava. They visited the temple in 1969.

On seeing the ruined condition of the temple, Mahaperiyava asked Reddy to start the renovation immediately and gave Rs 1121, as Kanchi Mutt’s share towards renovation. Sri Kirupanandha Variyar also contributed some amount from the money received through discourse.  Thiruvalam Sri Sivananda Mouna Guru Swamigal also participated and made donations to this divine work. After 10 years of hard work the Kumbabhishekam was conducted on 19^th June 1978.

Inscriptions:

There are 52 inscriptions in the Temple talks about the contributions made to the Temples by various kings especially Cholas (Rajendra Chola I, Kulothunga Chola I, Kulothunga Chola II, Kulothunga Chola III and Rajaraja Chola II). The inscriptions mention Lord Shiva, as Adavalleeswarar, Adavallanayanar, Thirumoolasthanamudaya Mahadevar. The place Munnur was called as Munjoor, Raja Narayana Chaturvedi Mangalam, Purushotama Nallur and Singavananthal as per the inscriptions. This place was called as Jayankonda Chozha Mandalathu Oyma Nattu Vijaya Rajendra Valanattu Munjoor as per Rajendra Chola Inscription.

The inscriptions mainly speak about donation of land, gold, money, sheep, goat, cow, etc, towards burning of perpetual lamps, daily poojas, annual celebrations (Tiruvizha) like Chithirai Tiruvizha, Avani Tiruvizha, Karthikai Tiruvizha, Masi Tiruvizha  and Pournami pooja etc. The food offered to Lord Shiva like Arisi Amuthu (rice), Thayirmuthu (curd rice), Neiyamuthu (ghee rice), Kariamuthu (vegetable rice) are also mentioned in the inscriptions.