हिंदीOn this day
Standing

Vriddhapureeswarar (Pazhampathinathar) Temple, Tiruppunavayil

A Pandya-country shrine by the sea, sung by Sambandar and Sundarar. Fourteen lingas are worshipped inside, and the Vedas are said to have worshipped here.

Built: Pandya temple with a tall rajagopuram and vimana and a very large lingaWhere: Tamil Nadu (Pudukkottai district, Avudaiyarkoil taluk, near the coast)Deity: Bhagwan Shiva as Vriddhapureeswarar (Pazhampathinathar, Lord of the ancient town); Devi as Periyanayaki (Karunai Nayaki)9.86° N, 79.07° E
Photo: Kailash PL · CC BY-SA 4.0

01Brahma’s linga

Vriddha means old: the Lord is Pazhampathinathar, Lord of the ancient town. The temple’s katha says Brahma, after he had been held captive by Murugan for not knowing the meaning of the Pranava, came here to win back his work of creation; he set up a linga, carved a face of Shiva on each of its four sides, and made a tirtha for its abhishekam. The sanctum holds a very large linga, and fourteen lingas are worshipped in the temple. Sambandar and Sundarar each sang one padigam on Tiruppunavayil.

Visiting

About 25 km south of Avudaiyarkoil in Pudukkottai district, near the Palk Bay coast.

Nearby

Adi Ratneswarar Temple, TiruvadanaiStanding
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Adi Ratneswarar Temple, Tiruvadanai

The town of the goat-headed elephant, where Varuna’s son regained his form, and where Surya worshipped a linga of blue gem. Sambandar sang it.

Avudaiyarkoil (Tiruperunturai), Atmanathaswamy TempleStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Avudaiyarkoil (Tiruperunturai), Atmanathaswamy Temple

The temple raised at Tiruperunturai where Manikkavacakar met Bhagwan Shiva as a guru under a kurundam tree and spent the Pandya king’s horse money on it. In the sanctum there is only a pedestal: Shiva is worshipped here as the formless Self.

Kalaiyar KovilStanding
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Kalaiyar Kovil

The Shiva temple and forest stronghold of the Sivaganga rajas, sung by Sundarar in the Tevaram. Here Raja Muthu Vaduganatha Thevar fell to the Company’s army in 1772, and here the Marudhu brothers made their last stand in 1801.

Sathyamurthi Perumal Temple, Thirumeyyam (Thirumayam)Standing
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Sathyamurthi Perumal Temple, Thirumeyyam (Thirumayam)

Under the hill fort of Thirumayam, Vishnu reclines in a cave cut into the living rock, one of the largest such images in the south. Beside it, in the same hill, is a cave of Mahadev.