Navaneetheswarar Temple

The Navaneetheswarar Temple is located in Sikkal and is dedicated to God Navaneetheswarar. Legend has it that during a famine, the divine Kamadhenu (cow of the heavenly abode) had consumed meat and God Shiva knowing this, cursed the cow to become a tiger. The sorrow - stricken tiger asked the God to pardon it. The kind - hearted God is said to have told the tiger, "Take bath in the holy place Mallikaaranyam on the earth, offer your prayers to the God there and then you will be relieved of your curse". Accordingly, Kamadhenu came to this place, built a pond and when she took bath, milk from her udders flowed and the whole pond became a milk - pond. From this milk - pond gathered butter. As per the direction of God Siva, Sage Vasishta came to this sacred place, created a Lingam from the butter and worshipped it. Trying to remove this Lingam became a problem, hence the place came to be known as "Sikkal". (In Tamil the term means "problem") The Vinayaka of this place is known as "Sundara Ganapathi". God Muruga in the holy places, Ettukkudi, Enkan and Sikkal are alike in structure and so it is said, that these three images are sculpted by the same sculptor. On the North - western corner of the temple is a separate sanctum for Anjaneyar.