01One in a thousand
A Chola king with an illness no physician could cure was told to feed a thousand people a day for forty-eight days. Each day a thousand leaves were laid and only nine hundred and ninety-nine came. On the last day every seat was filled; the thousandth was an old man who answered the king’s question with another, Yaarukku oor, whose town is this? The king knew Him, dug the mound where He vanished and found the linga, which bears the scar of the spade. The Lord is honoured as Aayirathil Oruvar, one among the thousand, and Akkur takes its name from those words. Sirappuli Nayanar, who fed Shiva’s devotees and chanted the Panchakshara without rest, lived here, and both he and the thousandth guest are shown in the ardhamandapa.
About 16 km east of Mayiladuthurai on the Tarangambadi road. Shiva showed His wedding form to Agastya here; the Murugan shrine is sung in the Tiruppugazh.
