Tantric rituals were followed during the daily worship in the Kali temples. Kali or Durga worship, also known as Shaktism, entered into Tamil country from Gauda region (present day Bengal) before 7th century C.E. The other important shrines are for goddess Saraswati as Veena Vidyambigai and for Dakshinamurthy (a form of Shiva) where he has a female form called Kadambavana Dhakshina Rupini. In the east-facing shrine, the goddess appears in her ferocious form called Thillai Kali. The west-facing shrine depicts the goddess in his benign four-faced form Brahma Chamundeeswari. There are two main shrines in the temple. Kali was pleased and assumed a benign form with four heads similar to Brahma and known as Thillai Amman (Mother of Thillai) or Brahma Chamundeeswari. Her anger was pacified by Brahma by chanting the Veda and praising her.

Thus, she is worshipped as Thillai Kali here. Parvati in anger assumed her ferocious form Kali and left Chidambaram (Thillai) and settled outside the town borders. Due to her modesty and shyness, Parvati refused and agreed her defeat. raising one leg above his head and challenged Parvati to replicate it. Shiva performed the Urdhva Tandava posture, i.e. While they were playing dance, Shiva was about to be defeated. In order to resolve thus, they performed a dance program at Chidambaram in front of Vishnu, Brahma and other deities. It was an argument that who is superior, either Shiva or his wife Parvati. Legend says that the goddess Kali (a form of Parvati) moved here after losing to the god Shiva in the celestial dance contest. The temple is on the outskirts of the city of Chidambaram. Kali dancing with Shiva (Nataraja) in Urdhva Tandava posture, sculpture in Chidambaram Nataraja temple

Thillai kali amman photos