பிள்ளையார்பட்டி கற்பக விநாயகர் கோயில்Pillaiyarpatti Karpaga Vinayagar Temple

Sthala Mahātmyam

Pillaiyarpatti's Karpaga Vinayagar is one of Tamil Nadu's oldest rock-cut cave shrines, its sanctum hewn into a granite hillock during the early Pandya era, with some of the region's earliest inscriptions. The presiding Ganesha is a six-foot bas-relief carved directly from the living rock, worshipped as 'Karpaga Vinayagar' because, like the celestial wish-granting Karpaga tree, he fulfils every devotee's prayer. His iconography is archaic and distinctive: he bears only two arms, his trunk curls to the right (valampuri), and he holds a modaka, unlike the later four-armed, left-turned form. A rare feature is that the deity faces north. An early Tamil inscription beside the image calls him 'Desi Vinayagar,' and the same cave holds a rock-cut Shiva (Thiruveesar). The temple has long been cherished and administered by the Nagarathar (Chettiar) community. Its grandest celebration is the ten-day Vinayaka Chaturthi (Aug-Sep), culminating in a chariot procession, when tens of thousands of pilgrims throng the shrine seeking wisdom, prosperity and the removal of obstacles.