Masilamaninathar (Gomukteeswarar) Temple, Tiruvavaduthurai

01Tirumular and the cowherd

The Periya Puranam tells of a yogi from Kailasa travelling south to meet Agastya. Near Tiruvavaduthurai he found the cows of the village weeping round the body of their cowherd, Mulan, who had died in the field. Out of pity he left his own body hidden and entered Mulan’s, and led the cows home. When he returned his own body was gone, and he understood it was the Lord’s will. He sat under the pipal tree of this temple in tapas, and the Tirumandiram, three thousand verses, the tenth Tirumurai, is said to have come from him there, a verse a year. The Lord is also Gomukteeswarar, for Parvati worshipped here as a cow and was freed.

02Sambandar’s gold and the Adheenam

Sambandar’s father needed money for a yajna, and the boy sang here asking the Lord for it; a purse of a thousand gold pieces was found on the altar steps. Appar and Sundarar sang the shrine too. The temple houses the Tiruvavaduthurai Adheenam, one of the oldest Shaiva Siddhanta monasteries, which manages it and several other great temples, Mayiladuthurai among them. In August 1947 the Adheenam sent a golden sengol, a sceptre, to Jawaharlal Nehru on the eve of independence; it was installed in the new Parliament of India in May 2023. The great Nandi in the court is among the largest in the Kaveri country.

The life of this place