01Three rivers
The Bhavani flows down from the Nilgiris and joins the Kaveri here, and devotees hold that a third river, the Amudha, rises unseen from below, as the Saraswati does at Prayag; so the place is called Kooduthurai, the meeting ford, and Dakshina Triveni. Kubera, the temple says, flying past in his vimana, saw a deer, a tiger, a cow, an elephant and a snake drinking together without enmity under an ilandai tree, and was told it was a place the Vedas visited; he worshipped the linga beneath the tree. Sambandar sang the shrine as Tirunana. Last rites and tarpanam are performed on the steps at the confluence every day.
02Shiva and Vishnu together
Within the same walls is the shrine of Adi Keshava Perumal with Soundaravalli Thayar, so the temple is visited by Shaiva and Vaishnava alike. Vedanayaki, the Devi, has her own shrine. The temple keeps an ivory cot that tradition says was given to the Devi by William Garrow, the Collector of Coimbatore, who believed she had warned him out of a falling building; his signature is said to be on it. Aadi Perukku, the river festival of the Tamil month of Aadi, is the busiest day at the sangam.
Bhavani town is about 15 km north of Erode. Tarpanam priests sit on the confluence steps from early morning.
