Yazhmurinathar Temple, Dharmapuram (Karaikal)

01The Yazh Muri padigam

Tirunilakanta Yazhpanar played the yazh, the old Tamil harp, beside Sambandar as he sang, and his mother’s people lived at Dharmapuram. They said it was the yazh that made the boy’s hymns great. Hurt, Yazhpanar asked Sambandar to sing a hymn he could not follow. Sambandar sang, and the music went past what the strings could hold; Yazhpanar raised the instrument to break it, and Sambandar stopped him and told him to play as far as it would go. So the Lord is Yazhmurinathar and the hymn the Yazh Muri. Carvings over the sanctum door show the saint singing, the harpist and his wife. Yama, who had tried to take Markandeya, worshipped here for pardon.