Sivalokathyagar Temple, Tirunallur Perumanam (Achalpuram)

01The wedding and the light

Sekkizhar’s Periya Puranam ends Sambandar’s life here. At sixteen, with his parents’ blessing, he was married at Nallur Perumanam, and after the rites he came to the temple with his bride and guests. A blaze of light appeared. Some in the crowd held back in fear, and Sambandar sang the Namasivaya padigam, the hymn of the five syllables, and led them all into the jyoti. With him went Tiruneelakanta Yazhpanar and his wife Mathanga Choolamani, Tiruneelanakka Nayanar and Muruga Nayanar. Every year on Moolam in Vaikasi the wedding is enacted again in the temple, from the morning upanayanam to the evening procession and the union with the light.

02The Devi who gave ash

At the wedding, the temple says, Uma herself moved among the guests giving out sacred ash, and so she is Tiruvenneetru Umaiammai, Uma of the holy white ash. At her shrine, which stands like a temple of its own in the western outer prakaram, devotees receive vibhuti in place of kumkum, and married women take it for their husbands’ long life. The five-tiered gopuram faces east across the Panchakshara Theertham. In the hundred-pillared hall Sambandar and his bride, Sthothra Poornambikai, stand in wedding dress.