01Three crore mantras
Koti is a crore. The temple’s katha tells of three crore devas, or mantra-beings, freed of a curse when their mantras were spoken here with perfect care, and so the Lord is Koteeswarar; japa, homa and meditation here are said to bear threefold fruit. Yama is said to have no hold over anyone who has lived at, walked on or even heard the name of Tirukkodikka. The Kaveri turns to flow north here, and bathing in it at dawn on Sundays of Karthigai is held especially meritorious. Inside, Shani appears as the boy Bala Shani with a linga on his head, and he and Yama face each other, as do Chitragupta and Durvasa. Shani’s family, with Jyeshtha Devi and their children, is carved from one stone. Kurakkukka and Tirukodikka are among the five ka shrines.
02Sembiyan Mahadevi’s stone temple
The brick shrine was rebuilt in granite under Sembiyan Mahadevi, the Chola queen mother of Uttama Chola, whose gifts renewed many Tevaram temples. Inscriptions go back further, to the Pallava king Nandivarman, and a record of Gandaraditya’s time notes a gift of land so that servants would carry five pots of Kaveri water to the temple each day. The east-facing temple has a five-tiered rajagopuram; the walls carry Nataraja with Karaikkal Ammaiyar, Bhikshatana, Mohini and Agastya, and the gateway shows women playing musical instruments. Bamboo is the sthala vriksham. Appar sang three padigams here and Sambandar one, and the scholar Bhaskararaya is said to have visited.
Near Aduthurai and Tiruvavaduthurai on the Kumbakonam–Mayiladuthurai corridor, reached via Kuthalam and Kadiramangalam or from Aduthurai.
