Etteeswarar Temple, Paiyanoor
– Legends
Etteeswarar:
During 8th Century CE, a devotee named Nagan
from this village was a tenant of a piece of land belonging to the
temple. Many villagers were also tenants of the temple land. All of them
paid their dues to the
temple properly and had their wages from the Grama Sabha for their services
rendered to the village and the
temple. It is said that Nagan also cleaned Paiyanoor Lake at his own
cost. Though Nagan worked sincerely wages were not paid to him properly.
Unable to overcome the injustice, he begged Lord
Etteeswarar to end his sufferings and requested him his pending wages to be
given to him. The wage day came after few days and the Grama Sabha was held
before the temple. The members of the Gram Sabha cheated Nagan again. He pleaded before them, but none took it
seriously.
They chased him out. When he was chased out, he cried in
front of the sanctum and shouted that Lord Shiva should make them pay a heavy
price for their injustice. After the payment session was over, they began to
leave the Sabha. They were intercepted by a divine voice demanding them to
stop and ordered them to pay all the pending wages to Nagan, else all evils
would engulf their families.
Further, the divine voice threatened them that they
would be put to untold sufferings with serious diseases. They turned to
the direction of voice, found a Jyoti moving slowly and disappearing in the
sanctum. They realized that it was the order of the Lord Shiva warning
them of the consequences of the injustice done to Nagan. They paid his
dues in total and requested him to appeal to Lord on their behalf for
pardon.
Nagan pardoned them, expressed his gratitude to Lord for
his intervention to save him. The Grama Sabha understood their mistake and paid
all the dues to Nagan. They requested Nagan to appeal for them to Lord Shiva
and pleaded him to pardon them. Nagan expressed his gratitude to the Lord who
saved him. Hence, Lord Shiva came to be called as Etteeswarar (Ettee means
Seek in Tamil).
People
worshipped Lord Shiva here:
Siru Kurippu Thonda Nayanmar is said to have worshipped
Lord Shiva of this
temple. It is mentioned in 1080 song in Periyapuranam. It is also said that
Idai Kattu Siddhar of Thiruvannamalai had worshipped Lord Shiva here. His idol
can be seen at the entrance of the
temple.
