Navaneetheswarar Temple, Sikkal

01The butter that stuck

The temple’s katha says this was a jasmine forest where Kamadhenu, cursed for eating flesh, bathed in the tank and was freed; her milk overflowed and made the tank a lake of milk. Maharshi Vasishtha shaped a linga from the butter of that milk and worshipped it, and when he tried to lift it to take it with him, it stuck fast, sikkal. So the Lord is Navaneetheswarar, Vennai Nathar, the Lord of butter, and the village is Sikkal. The shrine stands on a high basement, a madakkoyil, and Sambandar sang it in the Tevaram.

02Singaravelar’s spear

In the same compound is the shrine of Singaravelar, Murugan in his beauty, so loved that Sikkal is sometimes called a seventh padaiveedu. Before he went to Tiruchendur to slay Surapadma, Murugan received the vel, the spear, from his mother Velnedunkanni here. During Skanda Shashti, at the moment the vel is given, devotees see the image of Singaravelar break out in sweat, and the priests wipe his face. Within the walls also stands the Vaishnava shrine of Kola Vamana Perumal, so the three, Shiva, Murugan and Vishnu, are worshipped together.