01Kamadhenu’s Lord
Aa is the cow and nilai a station: Anilai is where the cow stood. The temple’s katha says Kamadhenu worshipped the linga here, pouring her milk on it, and so Shiva is Pasupatheeswarar, Lord of the cattle. Brahma too worshipped here, and the tank is Brahma tirtham. Sambandar’s hymn on Karuvur Anilai is in the Tevaram. Karur is the Vanji of the Sangam age, a capital of the Cheras, and two of the sixty-three Nayanmars belong to it: Pugazh Chola Nayanar, the king, and Eripatha Nayanar, who cut down a royal elephant that had trampled the flowers gathered for Shiva.
02Karuvur Devar and the inscriptions
Karuvur Devar, the siddha whose hymns stand in the ninth Tirumurai and who is honoured at the Brihadeeswara temple of Thanjavur, belongs to this town, and a shrine to him is in the temple. Inscriptions show the temple stood in the reign of Rajendra Chola I, who gave it land; the Kongu Cholas, Kongu Pandyas and Vijayanagara kings added to it. The temple covers about 2.65 acres, and its front gopuram rises about 120 feet.
In the centre of Karur, about 1 km from Karur Junction on the Erode–Tiruchirappalli line.
