The sand linga and the Kampa flood
The Skanda Purana tells this story inside its book on Arunachala, because Kanchi is where the goddess's journey to that hill begins.
The darkness. Shiva and Parvati are at play when she covers his three eyes with her hands — the eyes that are the moon, the sun and fire. She means no harm. But the light of the worlds goes out. The Devas stop flourishing, the Vedas no longer shine and sacrifices cease. Sages work out the cause and pray to Shiva to stop a destruction begun in love's sport. He asks Gauri to release his eyes, and the light comes back. The Siddhas report that the half-wink of Shiva's time has cost crores of human years.
The sentence. Shiva calls the act thoughtless: she is the mother of the universe, and the worlds have been destroyed out of season. Parvati asks how she can make amends. Shiva accepts her repentance and prescribes a penance for the good of the world, at Kanchi. He describes the city as heaven on earth, where the river Kampa destroys great sins and a single mango tree grows. He promises that Ganas, Dakinis and yogins will serve her and that he will stay in her mind.
The penance. Parvati goes to the Kampa with her companions. The single mango tree — the ekāmra — reminds her of Shiva. Her companion Vijaya steadies her. On the riverbank she gives up her ornaments, wears bark and rudraksha, eats what the forest gives, and sits through the five fires of summer, the bare ground of the rains and the water of winter. She makes a linga of sand and worships it.
The flood. To test her, Shiva raises a great flood in the Kampa. Her companions warn that the current will sweep the sand linga away and urge her to leave. She will not. Ambika embraces the linga and stays with it while the water rushes over her, her mind fixed on Sadashiva.
The voice. An unseen voice tells her the flood has passed and she may let go, and declares that the sand linga will be great for ever and worshipped by the gods. Shiva then tells her he will take a fiery form called Arunachala and sends her to the sage Gautama. Parvati — now called Kamakshi — leaves the gods and sages on the Kampa bank and sets out.
What it explains. The account gives the temple its name, Ekamreshvara, lord of the single mango tree, and it explains why the linga here is counted as earth: it is the linga of sand the goddess made and held through the flood.
Where this account comes from
- Purana: Skanda Purana, Maheshvara Khanda, Arunachala Khanda (Purvardha) 3.23–72 wisdomlib.org
- Purana: Skanda Purana, Maheshvara Khanda, Arunachala Khanda (Purvardha) 4.1–55 wisdomlib.org