01Hari’s door
In the Lingodbhava katha Vishnu took the form of the boar and dug down to find the foot of the pillar of light. The temple holds that He broke into the earth at this spot, and so the place is Hari-dwara-mangalam and the Lord Pathaleeswarar, Lord of the underworld; the hollow He made is near the sanctum under a stone slab, and the priest will show it if asked. The Devi stands on the Lord’s right, the kalyana arrangement, and is held to be Durga herself, so there is no separate Durga shrine, and no Navagraha shrine either. The vanni is the sacred tree. With Tirukkarukavur, Avalivanallur, Alangudi and Tirukollampudur it makes the Pancha Aranya circuit, visited in a single day.
About 24 km from Thanjavur and 22 km from Kumbakonam; cross the Vettar bridge off the Kumbakonam–Needamangalam road. Avalivanallur is 3.5 km west.
