हिंदीOn this day
Standing

Sishtagurunathar Temple, Tiruthuraiyur

Here Sundarar asked Shiva to grant him the way of tapas, and the Lord became his guru. Sishtagurunathar means the Lord who is teacher to his disciple.

Built: Village temple with a west-facing swayambhu lingaWhere: Tamil Nadu (Cuddalore district, near Panruti)Deity: Bhagwan Shiva as Sishtagurunathar (Pasupatheeswarar); Devi as Poongothai Nayaki (Sivaloka Nayaki)11.82° N, 79.53° E
Photo: Ssriram mt · CC BY-SA 4.0

01The Lord as guru

Sundarar, whose life was full of the world’s affairs, sang at Tiruthuraiyur asking the Lord to give him the path of tapas; his padigam on the place is in the Seventh Tirumurai, and the temple holds that Shiva came to him here as guru. The swayambhu linga faces west. The Surya Pushkarini tank lies outside the temple. Tiruthuraiyur is one of the twenty-two Tevaram shrines of Nadu Nadu, between the Pennai and the Vellar.

Visiting

Tiruthuraiyur village lies off the Panruti–Pudupettai road in Cuddalore district.

Nearby

Tiruvadigai VeerattanamStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Tiruvadigai Veerattanam

One of the eight Veerattanams where Shiva overcame evil, here as the destroyer of the three cities of the asuras. At this temple Appar, sick and returned from the Jain fold, sang his first hymn and was healed.

Sivalokanathar Temple, Tirumundeeswaram (Gramam)Standing
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Sivalokanathar Temple, Tirumundeeswaram (Gramam)

Appar sang Tirumundeeswaram, and the Cholas made it a stone temple in Parantaka’s reign. Its inscriptions carry the story of the Chola prince Rajaditya, who fell at Takkolam.

Bhaktajaneswarar Temple, TirunavalurStanding
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Bhaktajaneswarar Temple, Tirunavalur

The birthplace of Sundarar, last of the three Tevaram singers, who sang his own village’s Lord.

Vadukeeswarar (Panchanadeeswarar) Temple, Vadugur (Tiruvandarkoil)Standing
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Vadukeeswarar (Panchanadeeswarar) Temple, Vadugur (Tiruvandarkoil)

A Chola stone temple on the highway west of Puducherry, now in the care of the Archaeological Survey of India. Sambandar sang Vadugur.