01Sambandar’s port city
Kaveripattinam, or Puhar, was the early Chola capital on the sea, and Sambandar’s two padigams on Pallavaneeswaram paint it as he saw it: tall mansions, high walls, gardens loud with bees, tanks full of lotus, music in the streets. The temple says a Pallava king attained mukti here, which gives the Lord his name. Much of the old city lies under the sea and the sand now, and this shrine, a short way from where the Kaveri meets the ocean, is one of its few living links. The meeting of river and sea is counted the temple’s tirtha.
02Pattinathar’s festival
Pattinathar, the rich merchant of Kaveripattinam who gave away everything to wander as a renunciant, was born here, and a north-facing shrine shows him with folded hands. In place of the usual Brahmotsavam the temple keeps a twelve-day Pattinathar festival; the tenth day marks the grace Shiva gave him. His last days were at Tiruvottiyur in Chennai. Inside, a five-tiered gopuram leads to a broad linga, a Sabhapati hall shaped like Chidambaram’s, and Navagrahas that face west toward the Lord. Inscribed stones record kumbhabhishekams in 1958, 1995 and 2008.
The life of this place
- 20 August 1958Kumbhabhishekam of the temple, recorded on an inscribed stone.
- 5 April 1995Kumbhabhishekam.
- 17 March 2008Kumbhabhishekam.
In Poompuhar village, about 19 km from Sirkazhi; buses from Sirkazhi and Mayiladuthurai. Sayavanam’s temple is on the way.
