Agastheeswarar Temple, Agathiyampalli – Legends
Agastheeswarar:
As per the legend, as all the celestial beings were
assembled in Kailash to
witness the sacred marriage of Shiva and Parvati
and on account of it, the earth was tilted towards North. To balance the earth,
Lord Shiva asked the sage Agastya to travel towards the southern direction. Due
to greatness of this sage, he was equivalent to all the celestial beings and as
soon as he moved to the southern direction, the earth was balanced back.
Agastya did not want to miss the wedding. Hence he
sought a boon from Lord Shiva that whenever he wants the darshan of divine
marriage, Lord Shiva has to give his marriage darshan. Lord Shiva accepted his
request. Due to his boon, he got the darshan of divine marriage in many sites
in South India. This
temple is considered as one such site where he got the darshan of divine
marriage.
It is said that the Shiva Linga in this temple was installed
by Sage Agastya. Hence, Lord Shiva came to be called as Agastheeswarar. It is also
believed that Sage Agasthya built his hermitage here and trekked up to Vedaranyam
each day. As Sage Agastya stayed here, the place came to be called as Agathiyampalli.
People worshipped Lord Shiva here:
Yama, Kuzhaga Munivar, Kulasekara Pandya, Indra and
Siddhars had worshipped Lord Shiva of this
temple.
