Venni Karumbeswarar Temple, Tiruvenniyur (Koil Venni)

01Sugarcane and Venni

Karumbu is sugarcane, and the linga here looks like a bundle of cane stems tied together. Devotees with diabetes offer sugar to the Lord. Venni is the Venni Paranthalai of the Sangam poems, where Karikala Chola defeated the Chera and Pandya kings; the Chera Perumcheral Athan, wounded in the back, sat down to die rather than live with the shame, as the Purananuru tells. Karikala is said to have worshipped the village Pidari before his battles, and a tradition credits him with the first temple. The temple is plain, its pillars and walls almost bare of carving.