The Sayavaneswarar Temple or Chaayaavaneswarar :ta:சாயாவனம் சாயாவனேஸ்வரர் கோயில் is a

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

temple situated in the village of Thirusaikkadu r Thiruchaykkadu or Chaayavanamnear Kaveripoompattinam or

Puhar, Mayiladuthurai Poompuhar is a town in the Mayiladuthurai district in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The town, also known as Puhar, is referred to as Kaveri Poompattinam in ancient Tamil literature. It was once a flourishing ancient port city known as ...

Mayiladuthurai district Mayiladuthurai District is one of the youngest districts of Tamil Nadu, having been carved out from Nagapattinam district, Nagapattinam District in 2020. Tamil Nadu has 38 districts in total, and Mayiladuthurai is among them, located in the sout ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. The presiding deity is the Hindu god

Shiva Shiva (; , ), also known as Mahadeva (; , , Help:IPA/Sanskrit, ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐh and Hara, is one of the Hindu deities, principal deities of Hinduism. He is the God in Hinduism, Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions w ...

. The temple dates from the time of the

Medieval Cholas The Chola Empire, which is often referred to as the Imperial Cholas, was a medieval thalassocratic empire based in southern India that was ruled by the Chola dynasty, and comprised overseas dominions, protectorates and spheres of influence ...

. The

Saivite Shaivism (, , ) is one of the major Hindu traditions, which worships Shiva as the supreme being. It is the second-largest Hindu sect after Vaishnavism, constituting about 385 million Hindus, found widely across South Asia (predominantly in ...

Nayanmars The Nayanars (or Nayanmars; , and later 'teachers of Shiva') were a group of 63 Tamil Hindu saints living during the 6th to 8th centuries CE who were devoted to the Hindu god Shiva. Along with the Alvars, their contemporaries who were devoted ...

have sung of the temple in their songs.

The Temple

Tiruvaiyaru,

Mayiladuthurai Mayiladuthurai (formerly known as Mayavaram or Mayuram) is a :ta:சிறப்பு நிலை நகராட்சிகள், Special Grade Municipality and district headquarters of Mayiladuthurai district in Tamil Nadu, India. The town ...

Thiruvidaimarudur Thiruvidaimarudur (also spelt as Thiruvidaimaradur or Tiruvidaimarudur) is a panchayat town in Thanjavur district, in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The town is notable for its Mahalingeshwarar Temple, a Hindu shrine for Lord Shiva. Geograp ...

, Thiruvenkadu, Chayavanam and Srivanchiyam are considered equivalents of Kasi. Like in Kasi, where the city is centered around

Kashi Vishwanath Temple Kashi Vishwanath Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva. It is located in Vishwanath Gali, in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India. The temple is a Hindu pilgrimage site and is one of the twelve Jyotirlinga shrines. The presiding deity is kn ...

, the temples in these towns along the banks of river

Cauvery The Kaveri (also known as Cauvery) is a major river flowing across Southern India. It is the third largest river in the region after Godavari and Krishna. The catchment area of the Kaveri basin is estimated to be and encompasses the states o ...

, namely Aiyarappar temple in Thiruvaiyaru, Mahalingeswarar temple in

, Mayuranathaswamy temple in

, Chayavaneswarar temple in Sayavanam, Swetharanyeswarar temple in Thiruvenkadu, Srivanchinadhaswamy Koil in Srivanchiyam are the centerpieces of the towns.

Idol Theft

An idol of ''Standing

Sambandar Sambandar (Tamil language, Tamil: சம்பந்தர், Romanization, romanized: ''Campantar''), also referred to as Thirugnana Sambandar (Tamil language, Tamil: திருஞானசம்பந்தர், Romanization, romanized: ...

'' was stolen sometime between 1965 and 1975 (There is documentary proof from 1958 by the

French Institute of Pondicherry The French Institute of Pondicherry () UMIFRE 21 is a French research centre in Puducherry, India, under the joint supervision of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). It is th ...

) and was traced by the ''Idol Wing'' of the Tamil Nadu

Criminal Investigation Department The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is the branch of a police force to which most plainclothes criminal investigation, detectives belong in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth nations. A force's CID is disti ...

(IW-CID) with the help of volunteer-collective India Pride Project to

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and was successfully recovered in 2022.

Literary mention

describes the feature of the deity as: Tirunavukkarasar describes the feature of the deity as:Tirunavukkarasar Tevaram, IV: 65: 10

References

Photo gallery

File:Sayavanamsayavaneswarartemple2.jpg, Temple tank File:Sayavanamsayavaneswarartemple1.jpg, Vimana of the presiding deity (from the prakara) File:Sayavanamsayavaneswarartemple3.jpg, Front mandapa File:Sayavanamsayavaneswarartemple4.jpg, Prakara File:Sayavanamsayavaneswarartemple5.jpg, Prakara Shiva temples in Mayiladuthurai district Padal Petra Stalam Maadakkoil {{TamilNadu-hindu-temple-stub