Kapaleeshwarar Temple

Kapaleeshwarar Temple sits on Kutchery Road in Mylapore, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, and is the religious centre of a neighbourhood that long pre-dates the colonial city. It is dedicated to Shiva, worshipped here as Kapaleeshwarar, and to his consort Karpagambal. Tradition holds that an earlier Pallava-era shrine stood on the seashore and was destroyed during the Portuguese period, and that the present Dravidian temple was rebuilt inland in the 16th century under the Vijayanagara period; scholars treat the exact sequence with caution, but the temple is regarded as a living continuation of Mylapore's much older worship. The most visible feature is the eastern gopuram, a pyramidal tower about 37 metres high, whose surface is covered in painted stucco figures of deities, sages and mythological scenes; it was completed in the restoration phase of the early 1900s. Inside the walls lie a large rectangular tank used for festivals, mandapas with carved granite pillars, shrines to subsidiary deities and the main sanctum, which non-Hindus can view only from permitted areas. The architecture follows the standard South Indian temple plan of concentric enclosures and a processional circuit. The temple is best known for the Arubathimoovar festival held in the Tamil month of Panguni, usually March or April, when processions of bronze images move through the surrounding streets. Rather than a museum, the temple functions as a working place of worship, so the experience is of daily rituals, priests, flower sellers and devotees. Restoration is ongoing under the temple administration and the tower is repainted periodically, which keeps the stucco in good condition. Visitors remove footwear at the entrance, dress modestly and may photograph the exterior and courtyards but not the sanctum.