Velachery Dhandeeswaram Temple

 The Dhandeeswaram Temple in Velachery is a historical site, which has inscriptions believed to be made by a great king from the Chola Dynasty in the 11th century. There is lot of Tamil inscriptions found around Karuvarai wall .Velachery was known as Vedashreni meaning “Abode of Vedas”during the Chola period

There are a lot of stone inscriptions around the temple which provide valuable information about the temple.

Many kings belonging to the Chola dynasties have donated lands to the temple. A devotee hailing from Arcot has built the shrine of Ganesha inside the temple. He has also made provisions for the Nithya pooja. Another devotee has made arrangements for lighting the lamp in the sanctum sanctorum of the deities.The temple is called Thirudhandeeswaram .Velachery is also called Dhinachinthamani.Chaturvedi mangalam. It is named after the queen Dhina chintamani queen of Kulothungan.

   Dhandam refers to the weapon used by the lord Yamah. When Lord Yamah, threw the rope on Markandeyah to take his life, Markendeyan held on to a shivalingam. So the rope actually fell on Lord Shiva himself, which angered the God and He destroyed the weapon Dhandam. Later on, Lord Yamah, did penance and got back his Dhandam, from the pond  in the Dhandeeswaram Temple. As the “Dhandam” was given back by Lord Shiva, He is called as “Dhandeeswarar”. Velacher many main street name also Dhandeeswaram main road

As 4 Vedas worshipped here the place here came to be known as Vedasreni, which is today’s Velachery. It is also beleived that, as these Vedas and many other sages performed Yagnas here the place got its name as Velvichery which turned out to be Velachery today