Thirupurantheeswarar Temple,
Palayamkottai – Legends
Thirupurantheeswarar:
The demon Taraka had three
off-springs named Tarakaksha, Kamalaksha and Vidyunmali. These demon princes
performed severe penance towards the creator-god Brahma and
obtained the boon of immense power. Brahma, on being pleased with them,
presented each of them with an aerial city revolving in the sky. The legend
further states that these three cities or forts (Tripura) continued to revolve
in the sky for hundreds of years. In the course of revolving, the three would
converge very rarely. The boon granted them that they would live for a thousand
years in the three invincible, moving cities.
They would be destroyed only by
an arrow that could merge the three forts into one and set them to fire. The
demons, armed with this boon, wreaked havoc on the universe. The asuras
well-entrenched in their aerial cities would mount attacks on the devas (gods)
and the rishis (sages),
and harass them. Ultimately, the gods and the sages approached Lord Shiva here
and pleaded for his assistance in removing this menace. Lord Shiva agreed to
help them and annihilated Tripura. From then, Lord Shiva came to be called as
Thirupurantheeswarar.
Pandya King installed the Shiva Lingam here:
Once, Pandyan Kingdom was ruled
Uthalan. One day, Uthalan along with his wife in balcony saw Sage Gautama
walking in the street. He made fun of the sage. This behaviour angered the sage
and he cursed him to become ugly. Realizing his mistake, he begged pardon. Sage
Gautama advised him to install Shiva Lingam in Shenbaga Vanam in the banks of
Thamirabarani River and start worship Lord Shiva to get back his original face.
Sage Gautama invited King and
his wife and came to this Shenbaga Vanam. Sage Gautama decided to stay in this
place for some time on seeing the beauty of this place. One day, Lord Shiva
appeared in the dreams of King and instructed him to install Shiva Linga in the
name of Thirupurantheeswarar. As per the divine instruction, he went to Kasi
for a Shiva Linga and installed the Shiva Linga in this place. By doing so,
they got back their original face. Subsequently, King built this Temple.