Pachai Amman temple Thirumulaivoyal

This is a Amman temple in the ambattur area near Thirumullaivoyal . Pachai Amman temple is anchored at Thirumullaivoyal . This place is 23 km away from Chennai .

We use to keep pongal (made out of rice n jaggery) in this temple aadi or thai (mid July to August) (mid January to mid February) month and pray to this Goddess to give us good health happiness and safe guard us from evils as it’s a traditional and ancestral belief of our community .

They have built stove in rows making it easy for those who comes and keeps Pongal there and are neatly maintained .

There are paintings on the roof the temples and the story of this Amman as paintings on the walls .

There is a seperate shrine for Kathyayini Amman and Durgai Amman and a peepal tree where childless couples pray and tie cradle and pray to god for child boon .

There is Lord Vinayagar in dancing posture and Lord Sarabeshwarar idol on the other side . Opposite to the main sanctum is Navagrahas , seperate Saniswarar shrine , Bhairavar and Lord Anjineyar

The main deity is a 5 feet tall Pachaiamman statue in green colour .There’s a story behind the green colour .

Huge idols of Saptharishis and Sapthakannigais with horses makes the temple more colourfull .

There is a small statue of this Amman made out of brass in a seperate shrine backside of the main sanctum .

Legend:
Many century before, Lord Shiva and Parvathi lived in Kailasha , Shiva being the ruler of the world , always spent his time watching and guarding the world and the people . Parvathi was very upset , as Lord Shiva never spent time with her , so she playfully blindfolded the eyes of Lord Shiva , The very next moment, the whole world was encircled by darkness , nothing on the earth moved, and all were frozen and dead. The Rishis and Saints of heaven were stunned to see what had happened , so they hurried to the court of Lord Shiva. Suddenly Lord Shiva opened his third eye in the forehead (netrikan), and spread the light with the heat on the earth and brought the dead world to life .

Even though Parvathi blindfolded His eyes playfully, Lord Shiva was displeased and sentenced her to take a human form and to do penance until his anger subsides. Goddess Parvathy pleaded Shiva to forgive her, but once said can’t be modified, so Lord Shiva consoled her saying that during her endeavorus in the earth, she would be praised and will gain fame wherever she goes . Later Parvathi came to earth and went to Kasi the most sacred place , she went along the trails of Shiva temples . She visited Kanchi and did penance under a mango tree to please Lord Shiva , later she went to Tiruvannamalai , on her way to the temple, she took rest at Thirumalaivoyal, and made this place very sacred; She did deep penance standing on a needle . On her stay at Thirumalaivayal, seven Rishis ( sapta munivargal ) and Seven damsels ( Sapta Kannigal) accompanied her and guarded her as it was a dense forest those times . Hence why their statues are installed in the temple. Once Her sentenced period was over Lord Shiva accepted Parvathi as his other half known as Arthanareeswara (half Shivan and half Shakthi).

The reason behind the name Pachai Amman:
Pachai means green, which signifies that the Goddess is green. There are few legends of this name. One of the folklore is that a few centuries back, Gautama Maha Rishi performed a Yaga , to invite Goddess Shakthi , for this he had created a holy seat (prana sala) , with Dharbhai grass—a yellow-green grass used for auspicious poojas . When Goddess Shakti sat on this holy seat, the yellow grass transformed into lush green color. And thus the Goddess was named as Pachai Amman.

Yet another story states that, while the pursuit of Goddess Parvathi for enlightenment, she used to take rest on the deep green banana leaves and was fond of greeneries, so she was named as Pachai Amman.


Folklore of seven damsels and Rishis:

The legend is that when Goddess Parvathi did penance at Thirumalaivayal, due to her enormous energy the clouds started to group together above the village and engulf the village in darkness. Seeing this the King of this village was furious and sent his brothers to stop Parvathi from performing penance and throw her out of his village. His brothers returned to him and described how beautiful Parvathi was. This urged the king to marry her. So he went to the forest himself and compelled Parvathi to marry him. Parvathi got furious by his behavior and took the form of kali. Along with the help of Seven damsels and seven rishis she killed the king. This is why the statues of these damsels and Rishis are found inside the temple

Distinctiveness:

Like all other Amman temples, people with marriage obstacles, childless couples, skin diseases, health problem, and planetary effects come to this temple to seek the blessing of the Goddess.

Once the most unique feature of this temple was its pure water bodies that flowed around it. As these water bodies come from the dense forest, it has many rare medicinal values, which can cure any kind of diseases.

Now no water bodies around this place it has been occupied by shops and houses all over and the road has become busy although the temple has 3 entrance , the entrance in the car parking area is used by most people.