01The bending linga
Panai is the palmyra palm, and the place was a palm grove. The temple’s katha says a devout girl, Tadakai, came every day to garland the linga. One day her cloth began to slip as she lifted the garland, and while she held it with her elbows the Lord bent down to receive the garland from her. The linga stayed bent. A Chola king tried to pull it straight with ropes and elephants and could not. Then Kungiliya Kalaya Nayanar, who had spent his whole wealth on guggul incense for Shiva, tied the rope to his own neck and pulled, and the linga rose for love of him. The Periya Puranam counts him among the sixty-three.
02The Adheenam town
Sambandar sang Tiruppanandal. The town is the seat of the Tiruppanandal Adheenam, one of the Shaiva Siddhanta monasteries of the Kaveri country, which looks after the temple and publishes the Tevaram and Tiruvasakam. A palm tree is the temple’s sthala vriksha, and Periyanayaki, the great Mother, has her own shrine. A shrine of Kungiliya Kalaya Nayanar stands in the temple, and pilgrims who know his katha bring a little guggul to burn before the Lord in his memory.
About 15 km north-east of Kumbakonam on the Anaikarai road.
