01The pot and Garuda
When Shiva as a hunter broke the pot of creation, its base fell at Kumbakonam, its middle at Kalayanallur and its mouth here, kudam and vayil; the temple is one of the twelve tied to the Mahamaham. A second katha belongs to Garuda: carrying the amrita to free his mother Vinata, he set the pot on an anthill under darbha grass to fight an asura, and returned to find it gone. Digging with his beak, he found the Lord, who had drawn the pot into the mound; Shiva appeared, and at His word Garuda built the temple. So the linga bears a scar and is honoured as an Amrita linga, and the tank opposite is Amrita tirtham.
02A Sangam town
Kudavayil is old. The Sangam poets Kudavayil Keerathanar and Kudavayil Nallathanar took their names from it, and an Akananuru poem speaks of a Chola treasury here. The Chera king Kanaikkal Irumporai, defeated by the Chola Kochengannan, was held in the prison of Kudavayil kottam, as the Purananuru records. The same Kochengan, the spider-king of Tiruvanaikka, is honoured as builder of this maadakoil. The sanctum faces west; there is no rajagopuram, only a painted gateway on the roadside. Arudra Darshanam and Masi Magam are the great days, and Arunagirinathar sang the Murugan here.
On the Kumbakonam–Tiruvarur road via Natchiyarkoil, about 19 km from Kumbakonam and 22 km from Tiruvarur. Peruvelur, Thalaiyalangadu and Tirucherai are close by.
