01The elephant and the spider
The linga stood under a jambu (rose-apple) tree. A spider wove a web over it to keep off falling leaves; an elephant came daily to bathe it with river water and tore the web as unclean. The spider bit the elephant’s trunk and both died. Shiva gave the elephant moksha, which is why the place is ‘Thiru-aanai-kaa’, the grove of the sacred elephant, and the spider was reborn as the Chola king Kochengannan. Remembering his old enmity, he built seventy temples with sanctum doors too narrow for an elephant, this the first.
02Water in the sanctum
The sanctum floor sits below the level of the Kaveri, and water wells up around the linga even in the dry months; the priests show it with a lamp. Devi Akilandeswari faces Shiva across the court. The Shaiva tradition holds that Adi Shankaracharya calmed her fierce form by placing a pair of Shri Chakra ear ornaments, the tatankas, on her, and a Ganesha shrine was set facing her. The temple’s five prakaras and huge outer walls were built in stages from Chola to Nayak times.
The life of this place
- Sangam ageKochengat Chola, later counted among the 63 Nayanmars, builds the first temple.
At noon a priest dressed as the Devi performs puja to Shiva, a daily rite unique to this temple. Srirangam is 2 km away.
