There exists a famous temple for Lord Shiva in
Maddur taluk. The Shiva temple is called ‘Vaidyanatheswara temple’. The lord of
medicines Vaidyanatheswara has self-manifested to cure ailments of many sorts
especially diseases related to skin. The temple is on the bank of river Shimsha
which is a tributary river of river Cauvery and lies two Kilometers inside the
main town Maddur. The water in the river is unclean since enough rain has not
been there last year.
The temple history dates back to the times of
Hoysala Kingdom. Lord Shiva called ‘Vaidyanatheswara’ is in the form of a
snake. There is an ant hill inside the sanctum sanctorum of the temple from
which Lord Shiva reportedly emerged in the form of a Shiva Ling. The Priest
mentions that to get one’s ailments
cured, they have to visit the temple on four Mondays, take bath in the Shimsha
river and wearing wet clothes, offer prayers to the Lord by performing archane
and abisheka. At the end they will be offered the sand of the snake pit
as prasada and medicine which they have to mix in the drinking water and
consume. The belief is that the divine energy from the sand turns the water
into divine and cure the diseases.
As per the present priest of the temple, it is open
from morning 07.30 AM to 01.30 PM and later in the evening between 04.00 PM to
08.00 PM. Panchamruta abisheka is
done twice a day. Since the abisheka or archana is done between
07.30 and 09.00 AM only, those desirous to get the Pooja done on their behalf
will have to pre-fix their appointment with the priest or be available in the
temple by 07.00 AM to get it done. The temple has good connectivity by road to
travel from Maddur town.
There is a general belief amongst the devotees that
a divine serpent lives inside the Garbagraha protecting everyone in the village
who offer prayers here.
The walls in the Navaranga hall has
sculptures such as Goddess Lakshmi, Goddess Saraswathi, Lord Shanmukha, Lord
Bhairava, Lord Parashurama and two sets of Shivainga one called Edahari
(meaning left side stretched) and the
other Balahari (meaning right side stretched). Perhaps those Shiva Lingas may
have been installed by penancing Lord Parasurama in that shrine. Besides those, there is also sculpture of
Goddess Mahishasuramardini and Goddess Uma Maheswari in the Navaranga
hall. All of them bear the characteristics of Ganga-Chola period architecture.
The walls of the temple is simple supported by decorated pillars. No one is
allowed to enter either the Garbagraha or mukta mantapa.
Legend
According to word of mouth spread folk lore,
thousands of years ago there was an ant hill under a tree and a milching cow
used to daily go and stand near the ant hill at a particular time and released
milk from her dug as though she was performing abisheka to the ant hill. One of
the curious villager who happened to keep a watch for some time on the strange
behavior of the cow hid himself nearby and after witnessing the strange act of
the cow spread the news amongst the villagers. Since the villagers used to be
staunch believers of God, they too continued to offer worship to the ant hill
and one day the Lord appeared in the dream of one of the villagers to tell that
he was resting inside the anthill and will manifest at appropriate time to cure
the diseases of those who worshiped him in that place. As promised, on a heavy
rainy day, the pit broke open into two halves revealing a Shivainga seated
inside.
The Villagers continued to offer prayers to the Shivainga in the same place considering him to be a local doctor and when they prayed for curing their diseases, they were relieved of their problems. The worship place later got constructed into a temple and came to be called Vaidyanatha temple.