The Main Goddess – Amman, is facing the north in this temple. It was believed by the ancient kings that the Gods and Goddess facing north bless the kings with victory in the battle. Hence all the ancient kings offer special poojas to this Amman before leaving to the battle field. King Gochenkan Chola who was born in Woraiyur, built this temple for Goddess Shakthi.

Special Feature

• Vekkaliamman temple doesn't have any roof. The Moolavar is open to the sky, be it rain or shine. It is said that, many attempts have been made to build a roof for this temple at various times, which ended in vain.
• Generally in Shakti temples without roof, the deity is seen bending the left leg and the right placed on the demon. But here, it is a rare form that Mother Vekkali Amman is seen with her left leg on the demon and the right bent.
• People use to submit their problems in writing and tie it in the trident. They believe that the Amman would go through their petitions and redress their grievances. They light lamps in her shrine for removal of obstacles in marriage talks and also get the adverse aspects on their children solved.

The Legend for not having the roof

• An ancient saint, Sarama Rishi who lived in Woraiyur owned a wonderful garden with rare flowers in it. He used to worship Thayumanavar swamy in Trichy every day, offering garland out of flowers from his own garden, to Lord Shiva.
• A local florist, Pranthakan, saw the beauty of those flowers and started stealing them regularly from Sarama Rishi's garden and supplied to the Palace, to keep himself in the good books of the king.
• The sage one day found Paranthakan to be the culprit and went complaining to the King that the flowers were meant exclusively for Lord Thayumanavar and Pranthakan was stealing them every day, but the king didn't give an ear to it, as he already started liking those flowers very much. With much grief, the sage went straight to Lord Thayumanavar, praying him to put an end to Pranthakan's activity.
• The Lord turned wild after hearing this. The God was facing the east till then. Immediately he turned facing west (towards Woraiyur), with his powerful eyes open, emitted anger which resulted in a huge sand storm which started spoiling the whole city of Woraiyur. Every place was filled with sand, burying the whole city. People were helpless and didn't know the reason for sudden sandstorm in Woraiyur. They went and surrendered to Vekkali Amman, praying to save them.
• The Goddess went to Lord Thayumanavar and prayed him to bring down his anger. On this, Thayumanavar subsided his anger and the sand storm came to a halt. People thanked the Goddess for saving them. Though the sand storm stopped, the people of the city had already lost their shelters. Hence, the Goddess also decided to live in a temple without roof, until everyone in the city gets a shelter for himself / herself.

Temple Location:

7 kms from Tricy city , Uraiyur Vekkali Amman Temple Trichy - 6260003.

Festivals

The temple is conducting Sarva Chandi Homam for the past 23 years in the month of Avani (August-September) Apart from this,

• 5 days festival in Chithirai (April-May)
• Panguni Poochoridal in March-April. The goddess will be decorated with plenty of colorful flowers
• Mango abishek on the last Friday of Vaikasi (May-June)
• Navarathri in Purattasi (September-October)
• Fridays in Thai (January-February)
• Fridays and Tuesdays in Aadi (Juy-August) are the festivals celebrated in the temple.

Opening Timings

The temple is open from 6.00 a.m. to 11.00 a.m. and 4.00 p.m. to 8.00 p.m.

Other Names

Worayur near Trichy also has other names as Vasapuri, Kozhiyur and Mukkeeswaram.