Sundareswarar Temple, Kovur

Kovur, a suburb of Chennai, has a Shiva temple, the Sundareswarar Temple, dating from around 965 CE, with Shiva as Sundareswarar, or Thirumaeneeswarar, and the goddess as Soundarambikai. Legend says Mahalakshmi came here as a cow to worship Shiva and rouse him from meditation, so that the heat of Kamakshi's fierce penance at Mangadu would ease; the place became Kopuri, from 'ko', cow, and later Kovur. It is counted as the Budhan (Mercury) shrine among the Navagraha temples of the Chennai area, and Sekkizhar is said to have begun the Periya Puranam here.

The temple faces south behind a seven-tiered rajagopuram, on a street shaded by trees and lined with old houses. Inside are Veerabhadrar, Subramanyar with Valli and Devasena, the Navagrahas and all 63 Nayanmars. The sacred tree is a rare Maha Vilvam whose stalks carry 27 leaves. The composer Tyagaraja stopped here on his way to Tirupati and, after a story of being protected from bandits, returned to sing the five Kovur Pancharatnam kritis to the deity, among the few of his works addressed to a god other than Rama.