Temples of Tamil Nadu

Meenakshi is born from fire and grows up to rule the Pandya kingdom from Madurai as a warrior queen. On a visit to Mount Kailasa she realises she is an incarnation of Shakti, and Shiva promises to come to Madurai and…

• Pancha Sabha

The poem's last section opens on festival worship across the hills — offerings, drums, songs, red protective threads. The guide gives the seeker Murugan's many names and tells him what will happen: Murugan will…

• 6 · Arupadai Veedu

The Tirumurugatrupadai opens by praising Murugan's radiance, his kadambu garland and his consort Deivayanai, then tells how he destroyed Surapadman when the demon became an inverted mango tree. It turns to the…

• 1 · Arupadai Veedu

The temple takes its name from Airavata, the white elephant of Indra. The fuller account of why the elephant came, which circulates in later retellings, has not yet been found in a reliable written source, so it is…

Thanjavur's temple has no Puranic origin story; its story is the one its builder cut into its walls. Rajaraja I took the title Sri-Rajaraja around his 19th regnal year and named the temple Sri-Rajarajesvara after it.…

Shiva has forgotten the meaning of the Pranava, Om, because of a curse from the sage Bhrigu. He calls his son Subrahmanya, who agrees to teach him on condition that Shiva learns it properly, as a pupil. Shiva stands…

• 4 · Arupadai Veedu

In play, Parvati covers Shiva's three eyes, and the worlds fall into a darkness that lasts crores of human years. Shiva tells her to atone by doing penance at Kanchi, on the Kampa river, where a single mango tree…

• Pancha Bhoota Sthalam

At Daksha's sacrifice Sati gives up her body in a yogic fire. Shiva carries the body in grief until Vishnu cuts it apart, and each place where a part falls becomes a seat of the Goddess. The Devi Bhagavata's own list…

• 2 · Ashtadasa Shakti Peetha

An elephant worshipped a linga of Shiva that stood under a jambu tree, cleaning it each day with water carried in its trunk. The account takes the temple's name from the tree — Jambukeswara, lord of the jambu — and…

• Pancha Bhoota Sthalam

After Rama had defeated Ravana he gave an image of Vishnu to Vibhishana, Ravana's brother, who set out with it for Lanka. On the way he set it down on the bank of the Kaveri. When he tried to pick it up again he…

The poem's fifth section describes a hill festival. Hunters dance the kuravai to a small drum; women with flowers in their hair move like peacocks. At the centre is the Velan, the priest, dressed in red, carrying a…

• 5 · Arupadai Veedu

The demons Sumbha and Nisumbha take refuge in the forest of Thiruvalangadu and terrorise the gods. Parvati takes the form of Bhadra Kali and destroys them, but her fury does not subside. To calm her, Shiva challenges…

• Pancha Sabha

Rajendra I, son of the builder of the Thanjavur temple, sent his army north to the Ganges. When it returned with Ganges water he took the title Gangaikonda Chola, 'the Chola who took the Ganges', and named a new…

Mahabalipuram's monuments were carved and built along the Coromandel coast in the 7th and 8th centuries by the Pallavas. Under Narasimhavarman I Mamalla the dynasty cut temples out of the living rock. Under…

Sivanesan Chettiar of Mylapore meant his daughter Angam Poompavai to marry the boy-saint Tirujnanasambandar. She died of a snakebite, and her father kept her ashes in a pot, hoping the saint would revive her. When…

When Shiva came to live at Chidambaram, the place was already the abode of the goddess Kali. The two settled the matter with a dance contest. Shiva danced the tandava, his cosmic dance; Kali danced the lasya. Shiva…

• Pancha Bhoota Sthalam
• Pancha Sabha

Narada brings Shiva a fruit of wisdom, and Shiva promises it to whichever of his sons first circles the world. Murugan sets off on his peacock; Ganesha circles his parents, saying they are his world, and wins.…

• 3 · Arupadai Veedu

Punyakashi, daughter of Mayasura, worships Shiva on Kailasa for three yugas and asks to be merged with him for ever. Shiva explains how vast his time is and tells her the wish will come true only after an immense…

Rama reaches the southern ocean with his army, knowing Sita is held in Lanka, and loses heart at the size of the task. Before drinking the water Lakshmana brings him, he makes an image of Shiva out of earth and…

• 7 · Dvadasa Jyotirlinga
• Char Dham

The shrine at Courtallam was first a temple of Vishnu. The sage Agastya shrank the image of Vishnu and made it into Kutralanathar, a form of Shiva, and the temple has been Shaiva since. Temple tradition draws two…

• Pancha Sabha

In the poem's second section Murugan rides a bull elephant hung with gold and bells. Nakkeerar describes each of his six faces and the task it performs — dispelling spiritual darkness, granting requests, guarding…

• 2 · Arupadai Veedu

Vedha Sharma, a Brahmin devotee, gathers paddy as an offering to Shiva and spreads it out to dry. Rain strikes the town. He prays, and Shiva shelters the grain so that the offering is saved. For this the god is…

• Pancha Sabha

Brahma and Vishnu quarrel over which of them is supreme. A column of fire rises between them, with no visible beginning or end, and a voice declares that whoever finds either end will be the greater. Vishnu becomes a…

• Pancha Bhoota Sthalam