The historical villages around Thiruvallur are chockful of temples, some very ancient as attested by architecture, iconography, and inscriptions. One among these is the Avundeeshwarar temple in a small village called Nemam, enroute from Thirumazhisai to Thiruvallur.
According to the Sthala Puranam here, this temple was once covered with vegetation and was hardly visible. A cow, on its own, regularly used to pour milk on the Lingam here, but the cowherder, not understanding it’s intent, started to beat it. God Siva is said to have protected the cow from getting hurt. ‘Aa’ in Tamil means ‘cow’ and hence the name of God Siva came about here.
The Avundeeshwarar temple has a tall gopuram at the entrance on the west side, which opens onto a large open enclosure (prakaram). While doing a pradakshinam (circumambulation) of this prakaram on the way to the sanctum, devotees see shrines for Subramanya with Valli and Devasena; Chandikeshwara; Kasi Viswanatha (Lingam) with consort Visalakshi and a Nandi in front; Navagraha; and Saptamatrikas (Brahmi, Vaishnavi, Varahi, Maheshwari, Chamundi, Kaumari and Indrani). To the right of the gopuram, in this prakaram is a sanctum for Ganesha.
The main shrine faces east but the entrance is from the south. A mandapam in front of the principal deity has Chola-era pillars and ahead, facing south, is the shrine for Goddess Parvati, worshipped here as Amrithambikai. God Avundeeshwarar is an unusual Lingam, about seven feet in height. The devakoshtas (niches on the outer walls of this sanctum) bear the images of Ganesha, Dakshinamurthi, Maha Vishnu, Brahma and Durga. Nandi, in the prakaram, has Darshan of Avundeeshwarar through a pierced window in the stone wall.
On the east side of this temple is the large temple-tank called Agni Tirtham. The Sthala Vriksham (sacred tree) is the Vilvam (Bilva in Sanskrit). This temple was in a dilapidated condition and was renovated about fifteen years ago.
Some inscriptions had been etched on the walls around the main sanctum but they are weatherworn and are faintly visible today. However, since Thirumazhisai, another ancient village with hoary temples, is situated hardly seven kilometres away and since the epigraphs there mention that it was situated in the ancient territorial division called Mangadu-Nadu, a sub-division of Puliyur-kottam in Jayamkondachola-mandalam, it can be safely assumed that the lithic records in the Nemam temple would also mention that it was located in the same geographical subdivisions.