Abirameswar Temple

Abirameswar temple is a very ancient temple in Tamil nadu more than 2000 years old .

Its near  Villupuram on highway between Chennai and Trichirapalli .in a place called Thiruvamaathur 

Its a Siva temple and has a self formed Siva lingam ,siva worshipped as Abirameswar and his consort Paravathi as Manonmani amma ,its described in 7 th century Tamil saiva canonical work called Thevaram ,classified as paadal petra shethram and sung by Naayanmaars .

Its about 2 acres in size and opposite is a shrine to his consort called Muthamman shrine ,the idol was supposed to have been installed by Adhi sankara himself 

theres a legend of how ancient cows had no horns and had pleaded to Lord Siva for a defense mechanism as they were being harassed by other animals and Siva gave them horns and hence the name Thiruvaamathur ,aa is cow .

the temple is very ancient though present structure was rebuilt in 16th century ,initially the time immemorial temple was reconstructed by Cholas several of them over periods later the Pallavas all these known by temple inscriptions 

Its huge Gopura too is very noteworthy ,inside too its granite hallways with sculptured pillars give it a very cool ambience