01Trident and bull
Appar had come back to Shiva from years among the Jains, and at Pennagadam, the Periya Puranam says, he sang asking that the Lord seal his body with the trident and the bull so that it would be wholly Shiva’s; a bhuta gana came unseen and pressed the marks onto his shoulders. The place name is told as pen, the celestial maidens, a, Kamadhenu, and kadam, the white elephant, who all worshipped here. Kalikamba Nayanar, one of the sixty-three, belonged to this town, and Meykandar, author of the Sivagnana Bodham, is said to have been born here. Nandi faces east, away from the sanctum, for the katha says he turned to hold back the pralaya waters.
Pennadam is a town in Tittakudi taluk, about 20 km from Vriddhachalam, with a railway station on the Vriddhachalam–Tiruchirappalli line.
