Thanthondreeswarar Temple

Getting there

• By train

  Mayiladuthurai town has an important railway junction on the Chennai to Trichy main line. Akkur is about 14 km east of Mayiladuthurai town.

• By air

  The nearest airport to Mayiladuthurai town is Pondicherry Airport, about 116 km away.

• By road

  Roadways and railways are the major ways to reach Mayiladuthurai town.

Why devotees come here

Thanthondreeswarar Temple stands at Akkur in Mayiladuthurai district, Tamil Nadu. It is one of the 275 Paadal Petra Sthalams, the Shiva shrines praised in the Tevaram hymns. Legend says a Chola king dug up a mound here and found the lingam.

Thanthondreeswarar is one of the 275 Paadal Petra Sthalams, the Shiva shrines praised in the early medieval Tevaram poems of the Nayanars Tirugnanasambandar and Tirunavukkarasar. Sambandar's hymn on it is in the second Thirumurai, and a hymn by Kapila Devar is in the eleventh. Among the Tevaram-praised shrines on the south bank of the Kaveri, it is the 46th Shiva temple.

Legend says a Chola king had an incurable disease. In a dream, Shiva told him to feed a thousand people over 48 days. The king dug up a mound, found a lingam there and built a temple over it. The place was named Thanthondri Maadam after the mound, maadam meaning an elevated place. Shiva is also called one of the thousand, because he appeared as one of the people fed.

The temple is built in the madakoil style. You pass the rajagopuram, then the balipeetam and Nandi, before reaching the sanctum. A shrine here is dedicated to Sirappuli Nayanar. The lingam is understood to bear a scar from the digging of the mound.

Tips for your visit

• Sembanarkoil temple is about five km from this temple.
• Akkur is in Mayiladuthurai district, the 38th district of Tamil Nadu, formed on 28 December 2020.

Questions people ask