01The hedge round the paddy
The sthala purana tells of a devotee named Ramakone who spread paddy to dry and went to bathe. Rain fell everywhere except on that one patch; Shiva had hedged the grain. Nel is paddy and veli a hedge, and so the town became Tirunelveli and Shiva Nellaiappar, the lord who guarded the rice. The temple stands in a bamboo grove of old, hence Venuvananathar. Tirugnanasambandar sang it, and it is one of the Paadal Petra Sthalams of the Pandya country.
02Pillars that sing
In the Mani Mandapam stand clusters of slender pillars cut from single blocks of stone; tap them and each gives a different note. Temple tradition credits them to the Pandya king Nindraseer Nedumaran of the 7th century. For centuries the Shiva temple and the Devi temple stood side by side with a road between. In 1647 Vadamalaiappa Pillai joined them with the Sangili Mandapam, the chain hall, so that the two became one. In the Tamra Sabha a copper-roofed shrine holds Nataraja.
The life of this place
- 7th centuryTirugnanasambandar sings Nellaiappar in the Tevaram.
- 1647The Sangili Mandapam joins the Shiva and Devi temples.
In Tirunelveli town, about 2 km from the railway junction. The Aani car festival (June–July) draws one of the largest temple chariots in Tamil Nadu.
