01Milk from the mound
Pal is milk. A Chola king out hunting chased a white bird into a bush, the temple says, and when he cut the bush away he found a mound, and milk burst from it when it was opened. That night Shiva told him in a dream that he was there as a linga, and the king raised a temple on the spot. So the place is Patrurai or Palthurai, the ford of milk. Markandeya is said to have worshipped here too, and Kubera. In the niches Dakshinamurti holds a veena, without the four sages who usually sit at his feet, and musicians come to him; Sankaranarayana stands where Lingodbhava usually would. The walls carry Chola inscriptions. Mekalambikai, in a south-facing shrine, is prayed to by parents who have lost a child.
About 2 km from Panayapuram on the Tiruvanaikaval–Kallanai road east of Tiruchirappalli; buses are few, so take an auto from Tiruvanaikaval.
