Masilamaneeswarar Temple

In ancient times, the forest adjacent Tirumullaivayil was occupied by two tarnished tribesmen, Vaanan and Onan from the Kurumbar tribe. King Thondaiman, who was the monarch of that land at the time wanted to end all the mayhems caused by these tribesmen.All his trials were unsuccessful. He finally decided to put an end to this by a battle and set out with his troops.

En route to the war, they waded through a condensed growing of Mullai plants (Jasmine climbers). The foot of the elephant on which he was mounted was entangled in the dense foliage. The king and his men, in an attempt to free the elephant from this mess, went on to destroy the wild twines with their weaponries. Abruptly they noticed blood flowing out from the leaves and found a ‘lingam’ bleeding. Stunned, the King became very tensed and thought that he had committed an act of sin.

He prayed to Lord Shiva for his forgiveness. Without any delay Lord Shiva and Parvathi appeared before the King out of fear that he might harm himself out of repentance. The Lord asked the King to build a temple for Him right there and promised that he would reside there as ‘Masilamaneeswarar’ [‘maasu’ – dirty or stain (caused by the profuse bleeding), ‘ila’ – without, ‘mani’ – gem].

It is believed that the Lord also promised to support him in destroying the Kurumbars by sending his holy steed, the Nandi bull.

The king proved to be victorious in the battle and marched towards his capital again. As a memoir of the victory, he detained a very prized possession of the Kurumbars — two pillars made of the tree trunk of ‘Vellerukku’ (white Crown flower – Calotropisgigantea). These pillars can be seen even today placed on both sides of the Masilamaneeswarar Temple, decorating the sanctum sanctorum of the Lord.