Thiruvottiyur Vadivudai Amman Temple (North Chennai)

In this thickly populated industrial city you can find a peaceful place to relax your mind.Popularly called "VADIVUDAI AMMAN  TEMPLE" (Sri.Thiagarajaswamy devasthanam),saints Thirunavukkarasar(appar),Sundharamoorthy  nayanmar,kalia nayanar,Pattinathar ,Adhi Shankarar &Vallalar Sri.Ramalinga Adigalar have worshipped in this temple.I would like to share an interesting happening in the life of Sundharamoortthy nayanar,hereafter let me  call him Sundharar.He is an ardent devotee of Thiruvarur Sri.Thiagaraja(Lord Siva).He has sung lot of poems  in  Tamil in praise of Him.He has lived there with his wife called Paravai Nachiar.Both of them are extremely devoted to Lord Siva there.They used to celebrate all the temple festivals there especially "thiruvathirai festival" which comes in the Tamil month of Margazhi , in a grand manner including free  offering of  food to all devotees  coming there.Sundharar  was not a landlord(not  owning any  agricultural land  & any immovable property),but all the foodgrains,money to be spent for the free  offering  was arranged by Lord Siva himself with a request by Sundharar.As God Siva is a lover of Tamil Songs ,Sundharar would sing beautiful songs in which he would  request  God what are all needed,which would be fulfilled by Siva(with some thrilling acts).When Sundharar visited Thiruvotriyur he observed a young woman devotee offering garlands to Lord  Siva regularly.He was attracted towards her  by her Bhakthi(affection towards God).Even though,he has married Paravai nachiar,he proposed  to  the young devotee at Thiruvotriyur temple(called Sangili nachiar) to marry him.Sangili agreed to marry Sundharar with one condition that he should not leave her  during Thiruvarur temple festival time as he is an ardent devotee of  Thiruvarur Thiagaraja.To confirm her condition,she asked Sundharar to take a vow at swami Siva's Sannidhi(Lord's place) that he would not desert  her. Marriage was  fixed next day.Before that Sundharar went to Lord Siva & Requested him  to hide in  a famous  flower tree(called Magizha maram in Tamil)  inside the temple,when he brings sangili  to take the vow by the next day(wedding day),so that he need not fulfill his promise(as lord will not be in sannidhi).Lord Siva  agreed to this.That day night,Lord Siva appeared in Sangili Nachiars dream  & advised her to take the marriage  vow at the Maghizha flower tree  instead  of  in his Sannidhi.Next day ,Sangili  told Sundarar, that he can take the  oath at the tree,saying that it is not proper to call  God as witness,Sundarar had to agree to that .So he married her at the tree side &  circled the tree three times as per  the marriage custom  with Lord siva's presence(hidden).Then Sundarar after sometime left for some holy places leaving Sangili at Thiruvottiyur.He became blind & lost his vision in both eyes,as he could not keep his promise.After some ordeal, by singing in praise of Siva ,God gives him one eye's vision& later another eye.Till date this marriage function is celebrated at Thiruvotriyur temple's Magizha tree.let me share with you,with another interesting happening of sundara's  life when he visits his first wife Paravai Nachiar at Thiruvarur later.