The Jambukeshwarar (Siva) temple, located in Sembakkkam village, not too far from Chennai, has traditionally been called Uttara Jambukeshwaram in Samskrit and Vada Thiruvanaikaval in Tamil, both ‘uttara’ and ‘vada’ meaning ‘north’. It is thus named as it is situated north of the famous and historic Jambukeshwarar temple at Thiruvanaikaval (Thiruvanaikka), near Thiruchirapalli which is one of the Pancha Bhuta Sthalams (five Siva temples in South India, wherein the Lingam is worshipped as an element of nature) where the central shrine has the Ap Lingam as it is always surround by water (‘ap’ in Samskrit is ‘water’). According to the Sthala Puranam (traditional story) connected with the Sembakkam temple, a king (whom some sources associate with the famous Chola ruler Kochenganan, who incidentally was also closely associated with the Thiruvanaikaval temple), constructed this shrine in Sembakkam. It is said that the Siva Linga in the Sembakkam temple once used to be surrounded by water just as in the Jambukeshwarar temple in Thiruvanaikaval, the water from a pond, situated close by, being the source.
The Sembakkam temple has a small modern archway on the west side with a Ganesha shrine near it. Entering the large and spacious temple enclosure (prakaram), visitors see the entrance to the main sanctum on the south side. However, the main deity faces east and in front, in the prakaram, on the east side, are the Nandi mandapam, bali-pitham, and dvaja-stambham (flag-post). A new gopuram is now being constructed above the entrance on the east.
The entrance to the main sanctum has images of Ganesha, and Subramanya with consorts on either side, while the small antarala (passage) in front of the main shrine, has a few Utsava-murtis (processional images), including Nataraja. The Devakoshtas (niches) on the walls of the central sanctum, which can be seen from the spacious parakaram, have images of Ganesha, Dakshinamurti, Mahavishnu, Brahma and Durga. The south-facing shrine for Goddess Parvati, worshipped here as Azhagambikai, is close to the principal sanctum and has an inner pradakshina passage too. There is a small mandapam in front of the shrine for this Goddess which has a few sculptures including those who were probably donors of this mandapa. A Kalyana-mandapam with a small shrine for Ganesha inside is seen in the prakaram as also sanctums for Navagrahas.
A few festivals are celebrated in this temple such as Tamil Varushapirappu (Tamil new year), Vinayaka Chaturti, Navaratri celebrations for nine days for Goddess Azhagambikai, with a procession on the tenth day, Thai Poosam, Sivaratri, Panguni Uttiram, and others. The Sthala Vriksham (sacred tree) of this temple is the naval (Jambu), which is also the famous Sthala Vriksham of the Jambukeshwarar temple in Thiruvanaikaval.