Jambukeswarar Temple At Thiruvanaikaval

Jambukeswarar Temple at Thiruvanaikaval, a Suburb of Tiruchrirapalli, is on the northern bank of the river Kaveri at the Srirangam river island, being surrounded by the Kaveri and the Kollidam river, which splits itself here from the Kaveri. It was built by an early Chola King called Kochengat Cholan.

According to the legend, Lord Shiva sent Goddess Parvati to perform ‘tapasya’ at the Jambu forest of Thiruvanaikaval, as He was offended by her mocking light heartedly his austerity. Parvati built a Shivalinga under the ‘venn naaval’ (white Jambu fruit) tree, with the water from River Ponni. After years of tapasya, Shiva appeared before Akilandeswari and gave her Shiva gnana (knowledge). Shiva stood facing west and gave Upadesa to Akilandeswari who stood facing east.

Another legend says that two Shiva ganas, Malyavan and Pushpadanta, always fought with each other. Once, both of them cursed each other out of rage, as a result of which both descended onto earth, Malyavan as a spider and Pushpadanta, an elephant. Both of them worshipped Lord Shiva at Jambukeswaram. The spider would build a web over the top of the Shivalinga to protect it from adverse weather. Similarly, the elephant would anoint the Shivalinga with water from the Cauvery, thus inadvertently destroying the web made by the spider. This continued for a long time, much to the exasperation of the spider.

One day, the spider caught the elephant in the act. Incensed, the spider crawled into the elephant's trunk and bit him to death. The spider died too, having been trapped inside. Their devotion pleased Lord Shiva, and He granted both their original forms. Since then the place came to be known as ‘Thiru Aanai Kaa’, which can be translated as the holy forest ('kaa') of the elephant ('aanai').

Enacting the penance of Parvati as Akil-andeswari, the temple priest dresses as a woman in a sari and offers prayer every day at noon to Lord Jambukeswarar

The spider was reborn as the King Kochengan Chola, who built several temples, including the Jambukeswarar temple. The entrance of the sanctum sanctorum was made small enough to avoid entry to even a small-sized elephant! The innermost anctum housing the Shivlinga is the Appu Lingam (water Lingam) underneath which is a subterranean spring that bathes the lingam perennially. One of the special special feature of the temple is that the temple priest dresses as a woman in a sari and offers prayer every day at noon to Lord Jambukeswarar.

There is no Thiru Kalyanam conducted in this temple for Shiva and Parvathi, as it is a Upathesa sthalam. It is believed that the Amman in the temple was in deep anger hence during one of Adi Sankara’s visit he installed the Prasanna Ganapathy idol right opposite to her Sannathy and installed a pair of Sri Chakra thaatankas to reduce her anger.

The temple is well known for its stupendous, towering and exquisitively carved, monolithic stone pillars. The four pillars which are found immediately after entering the temple are most decorated.