01The horn and the milk
The temple’s katha says Parvati, sent to earth as a cow, was digging in a bilva forest when her horn struck a buried linga and split its crown, and blood flowed. She poured her milk on it, took back her own form, and held the linga with her hand until the bleeding stopped and Shiva appeared. The crack is plain to see. A stucco cow pours milk over a linga above the single gateway, and a moat called Ksheera tirtham wraps the temple on three sides. In the vavval nethi mandapa a pillar carries Jvarahareswarar with three heads and three legs; the Lord is said to have cured Agastya of fever here, and the sick offer warm-water abhishekam and pepper rasam with rice.
About 2.5 km east of Nannilam on the south bank of the Mudikondan; turn at the Thoothukudi stop just before Nannilam. Appar’s hymns are in the fourth and fifth Tirumurai.
