Natrunaiyappar Temple, Tirunanipalli (Punjai)

01On his father’s shoulders

Bhagavathiyar, mother of Sambandar, was born at Nanipalli, and after the Devi fed her son the milk of wisdom at Sirkazhi, the village begged him to come. The walk was long for a small boy, and his father Sivapada Hridayar lifted him onto his shoulders. When the temple came in sight, Sambandar began to sing, Kaaraigal koogai mullai, and the last verse of the padigam says he came carried by his father. The temple’s tradition holds that the barren land turned fertile, which is why the place is called Punjai, dry-field country made good. Appar and Sundarar sang here too.

02A sanctum for an elephant

Parantaka Chola I built the stone temple in the early tenth century, and it marks a turn in Chola vimana building: the sanctum is large enough for an elephant to walk round the linga. Seventeen inscriptions name Rajaraja I, Rajendra, Kulottunga and Vikrama Chola; in Chola records the place is a brahmadeya of Akkur nadu, and in later times it carried Rajendra’s title Kadaramkondan, for his victory at Kedah. Shiva showed His wedding form here to Agastya and Vinayakar, and Kalyanasundarar has a shrine in the sanctum. The Chithirai festival runs in April.