01Under the banyan
Pazhu is the banyan, and a great banyan outside the walls is the sthala tree. The linga of Vadamoolanathar is of anthill earth and is kept under a pot-shaped cover. The temple says Mata Parvati did tapas here as Arunthava Nayaki, she of rare austerity, and that Parashurama came to be cleansed of the killing of his mother, done at his father’s command. On the third day of the Panguni festival the Lord is taken to Mela Pazhuvur, where Jamadagni is enshrined, a son presented to his father. Sambandar’s hymn speaks of priests from the Malai country serving here, a thread that matches the Kerala marriage ties of the Pazhuvettaraiyar, the Chola feudatories of this town. The brick shrine was rebuilt in stone in the tenth century.
At Keezhapazhuvur on the Ariyalur–Tiruvaiyaru road, about 12 km south of Ariyalur; buses from Ariyalur, Tiruvaiyaru and Tiruchirappalli.
