01The vessel that never emptied
Chorru is cooked rice, and odhanam is the Sanskrit for it. Famine once struck this country, the temple says, and Arulalar, a devotee who served the Lord, cried out asking how the Lord could watch his children starve. Rain came, the river rose, and a vessel floated to him; a voice from the sanctum named it an Akshaya Patra and told him to feed everyone from it. He served rice and ghee to all who came, and the vessel never ran dry. Stone images of Arulalar and his wife stand by the ardhamandapa. So the Lord is Tholaiyachelvar, whose wealth never ends, and the Devi stands with a vessel in her hand as Annapoorani. A local family still feeds pilgrims at their home; ask the priest.
02Sung by all three
All three Tevaram singers sang this shrine: Appar in four hymns, Sambandar and Sundarar in one each. It is the third of Tiruvaiyaru’s Saptasthanam temples, and its deity joins Aiyarappar’s palanquin in the Chittirai procession. The temple is called Dakshina Kailasam. Inscriptions record gifts from Chola and Pandya kings, and later Nayaka and Maratha work; the sanctum is square, with an ardhamandapa twice its length. Annapoorani’s shrine stands to the right of the Lord’s, which devotees read as a sign of a marriage shrine.
About 4 km from Tirukkandiyur and 13 km from Thanjavur, with buses from Tiruvaiyaru. Restoration work was under way in 2025; watch your step in the outer prakaram.
