Idaichuram, the pass between the hills, now Tiruvadisoolam near Chengalpattu. Sambandar sang it; the sage Gautama and Sanatkumara are said to have worshipped here.
Suram is a hilly track and idai means between: the old name describes the way the village sits in a gap of the low hills east of Chengalpattu. The temple’s katha says Gautama and Sanatkumara worshipped Gnanapureeswarar here and prayed for children, and were blessed. The Devi’s Tamil name, Imaya Madakkodi, calls her the tender creeper of the Himalaya. Sambandar’s one padigam on the place is in the Tevaram.
About 9 km east of Chengalpattu.
StandingWhere Bhagwan Vishnu as the Kurma (tortoise) worshipped Shiva, and where Shiva begged food in the village to feed a hungry Sundarar.
StandingThe eagle hill: a temple on a rock said to be the Vedas themselves, where for centuries a pair of kites came at noon to be fed by the priest. All three Tevaram singers sang it.
RebuiltAt Mamallapuram Vishnu lies on the ground itself, with no serpent bed, because he lay down where a tired sage left him. Bhoothath Alvar, one of the first three Alvars, was born here.
StandingRajasimha’s granite temple on the sea at the Pallava port of Mamallapuram, with two Shiva shrines and a reclining Vishnu between them. It has faced the waves for thirteen centuries.
