Tirumarainathar Temple

The Tirumarainathar Temple is located in Tiruvadavur and is dedicated to God Tirumarainathar. Once in this region, a war took place between the Devars and Asuras. God Perumal provided shelter to the Devas. So, Brigu Munivar provided shelter to the Asuras. When God Perumal asked Brigu Munivar to handover the asuras he refused to do so. Perumal was furious and killed Brigu's wife with his chakra. So, Brigu Munivar cursed Perumal that He will born in earth and He will live alone without His wife. To be relieved of the curse he came to Madurai. But, He had no Lingam to worship. There he noticed a cow pouring its milk on a lotus flower. Out of curiosity, he examined the place and found a Swayambulinga. He took that Linga and used it for worship. After that, the Linga was worshipped by many. This is the place where the sage Kabilar was relieved of his curse called Veerakathi. This is the place where the Purusaa Mirugam was created as the guardian deity for the Pandavas when they were conducting their Rajasooya Yagaa by God Vishnu. The temple enshrines God Shiva as Tirumarainaathar and his consort Aranavalliyaar. Here God Shiva is also known as Aatmanathar, Prananathar and Jivanathar.God Shiva was worshipped here by Vaayu and by the Vedas. Legend has it that Manikkavaacakar, a royal minister of the Pandya Kingdom built the temple at Tirupperunturai out of funds allocated for the purchase of horses and when the time came for him to display the stock of horses, jackals miraculously turned into fine steeds. There is a shrine to Maanikkavacakar close to the Tiruvaadavur temple. Just like the Madurai Meenakshi Somasundareswarar temple,Ambaal's shrine is situated to the right of Tirumarainathar's shrine. The outermost prakaram houses this shrine, the Makizha maram (stala vriksha) and the hall with one hundred pillars which is said to have been built by Maanikkavacakar himself. Also in this prakaram are the Bhairava Theertham and a shrine to Kaaleesar.The inner prakaram is centered around the Tirumarainaathar shrine and has a shrine to Manikkavacakar facing west and shrines for Vinayakar, Natarajar, Kaasi Viswanathar and Visalakshi, as well as images of Dakshinamurthy and Lingodbhavar.