01The feet on Appar’s head
The Periya Puranam tells two stories of Nallur. Amarneethi, a merchant who fed Shiva’s devotees here, was asked by a Brahmin boy to keep his loincloth safe; it vanished, and when Amarneethi offered another of equal weight, the scales would not balance until he had placed all his wealth, then his wife, his son and himself on them. The boy was Shiva, and the family was taken into his grace; their images stand in the temple, and the Thula mandapam marks the place. And Appar, who had prayed at Shakthimutram that the Lord set his feet upon his head, was told to come to Nallur, and here received that grace. In memory of it the temple places a crown bearing Shiva’s feet on devotees’ heads, as Vishnu temples place the satari.
02Five colours and seven seas
The shrines stand on a raised hillock, which the temple explains by the katha of Vayu tearing two peaks from Kailasa, one set down at Nallur and one at Avur, so Nallur is called Then Kailayam, the southern Kailasa. The swayambhu linga is said to change colour five times a day, and so the Lord is also Panchavarneswarar. Behind it a stucco panel shows the divine wedding as Agastya saw it here, with a second linga installed by the sage. Outside the gate is the Saptasagaram tank, the seven seas in one, where Kunti is said to have bathed on Masi Magham; a Masi Magham bath here is held equal to one in Kumbakonam’s Mahamaham tank. Sambandar sang Nallur in three hymns and Appar in two.
From Papanasam on the Thanjavur–Kumbakonam highway take the Govindakudi road past Valaippazhakadai; the temple is about 1 km off it. Masi Magham is the great bathing day.
