01Appar and the stone
When Appar returned from the Jain fold to Shiva, the Pallava king, urged by those he had left, put him through trial after trial. Last of all he was bound to a great stone and cast into the sea. Appar sang the Namasivaya padigam, beginning sotrunai vediyan, and the stone floated like a raft and carried him to the shore near Tiruppathiripuliyur; the place where he landed is still called Karaiyeriyappan, he who came up on the bank. He walked to this temple and sang its Lord. The hymn is in the fourth Tirumurai, and Sambandar too sang Tiruppathiripuliyur.
02The pathiri tree and the tiger-footed sage
Pathiri is the trumpet-flower tree, Sanskrit patali, and puliyur is the town of the tiger, after the sage Vyaghrapada, who was given tiger’s feet to climb trees for flowers before the bees reached them. He is said to have worshipped here, and the temple is counted among the puliyurs tied to him and Patanjali. A pathiri tree is the sthala vriksha. The temple owns a great wooden car and silver and gold chariots; its car festival in Vaikasi fills the old town.
In Tiruppathiripuliyur, the old town of Cuddalore, about 1 km from Tiruppathiripuliyur railway station.
