Kailasanathar Temple, Cheranmahadevi

Cheranmahadevi (also spelled Cheran Mahadevi), a taluk town on the bank of the Thamirabarani river about 15 km west of Tirunelveli, is home to the second of the nine Nava Kailasam temples and is associated with the Moon (Chandran) among the Navagrahas in that group’s tradition — a separate tradition from the Kumbakonam-area Navagraha temple circuit further north in Tamil Nadu.

The presiding deity here is worshipped as Kailasanathar, in keeping with the shared naming of most temples in the Nava Kailasam group. Tradition connects the group’s nine sites to the sage Agastya’s disciple, Uromacha Munivar, who is said to have set nine flowers afloat on the Thamirabarani river on Agastya’s instruction, installing a Shiva lingam as Kailasa Nathar at each place a flower came to rest, before attaining liberation after venerating all nine.

Wikipedia’s own article on the town of Cheranmahadevi, consulted for this entry, describes several other historic shrines there — a Ramaswamy temple said to be over a thousand years old, a medieval Bhaktavatsala Vishnu temple with Chola- and Pandya-era carvings, and two Murugan temples — but does not itself document a Kailasanathar or Shiva temple. This entry’s confirmation of the temple’s name, deity, and Nava Kailasam membership therefore rests on the separate Wikipedia group article for Nava Kailasam rather than on independent, temple-specific sourcing, and no founding date or architectural history could be confirmed from the sources checked. It is recorded as pending pending fuller, temple-specific verification.