Chennai Navagraha Temples MOON (Chandran)

NAVAGRAHA TEMPLES IN CHENNAI
Days	Planets	Temple	Address
Sunday	Sun	Agastheeswarar Temple	Kolappakkam Next to Manappakkam
Monday	Moon	Somanatheeswarar Temple	Somamangalam Near Tambaram
Tuesday	Mars	Vaidyanathar temple	Poonamallee before market
Wednesday	Mercury	Soundarewarar temple	Kovur Before Kundrathur from Porur
Thursday	Jupiter	Sri Ramanatheeswarar	Porur road left to Electricity board
Friday	Venus	Sri Velleewarar Siva temple behind Kamatchi temple	Mangadu
Saturday	Saturn	Sri Agastheeswarar Temple	Pozhicallur- Pammal route
Saturday	Raghu	Sri Nageswarar Temple - Kundrathur Sezchillar temple	Kundrathur
Monday	Kethu	Sri Agastheewarar Temple	Gerugambakkam Next to Kundrathur

 
Somangalam lies at about 35 kms south west of Chennai city. One can take the route from Tambaram via Kishkinta to reach Somangalam. 

The better alternative is to take the road from Pallavaram going to Kunrathur. After reaching Kunrathur junction, one has to take left (towards south) to reach Somangalam. 

Somangalam is about 10 kms from Kunrathur. Also plenty of busses ply from Porur directly to Somangalam.

Somangalam is an ancient, beautiful village having a temple for Lord Shiva. The main deity here is Sri Somanaadheeswarar and Goddess Sri Kamakshi Amman.

This temple is one of the Navagraha temples of Chennai (or Thondai Mandalam) devoted to Sri Chandra Bhagavan (Moon God). According to legend, once, Sri Chandra Bhagavan (also called Soman) is said to have got cursed by Dhakshan. 

As a result, he lost his divine charm and forgot all 16 form of arts he acquired. To come out of this, He is said to have created a pond here called Soma Theertham and worshipped Lord Shiva here. 

After this, he got back his beauty and wisdom. As Sri Soman (Sri Chandra Bhagavan) worshipped the Lord here, Lord Shiva here is called Somanaadheeswarar and the place came to be known as Somangalam.

This temple is a Parihaara Sthalam for those having any Dhosham related to Chandra Bhagavan. Sri Chandra Bhagavan has a separate shrine in the temple, facing west.

This temple is said to have been built by Kulothunga Chozha in 1073 AD during his 3rd year of reign. This place was referred as ‘Jayankonda Chozha Mandalathu Senkaattu Kottathu Maaganoor Naattu Somangalamaana Rajasigaamani Chathurvedhi Mangalam” Those days the places gifted (tax free) to Vedic Brahmins by ancient kings were called Chathurvedhi Mangalams.

There lived a king called Somakaanthan in this part of the country, who wished to build 108 Shiva temples throughout his country. While he was in the middle of the construction work for this temple, he had his enemies marching towards his territory for war. 

The king was shocked to hear this, because he was never prepared for a war at that time and had engaged all his soldiers in the temple construction work.

With much grief, he prayed Lord Shiva here to save him. Lord Shiva was pleased with his devotion in constructing the temple, directed Sri Nandhigeswarar to fight against the king’s enemy. 

Nandhi turned towards east and blew away the entire troupes of the enemy just with his forceful breath. Lord Shiva made Nandhi to face east permanently to make sure that there were no further attacks to the king’s country by enemies.