Karkadeswarar Temple, Tirundudevankudi

Karkadeswarar Temple is a Hindu temple at Tirundudevankudi in Thanjavur district, a place known in the past as Karkteeswaram and Nandankoil. Shiva is worshipped here as Karkadeswarar and his consort as Apoorvanayaki. It is one of the 275 Paadal Petra Sthalams, praised in the Tevaram by Tirugnanasambandar.

Its legend concerns a crab. The sage Durvasa condemned a gandharva to a new life as a crab, but promised he could regain his true form if he meditated on Shiva. The crab worshipped Shiva here so devotedly that Indra grew jealous and tried to kill it with a sword, at which a hole opened in the linga and the crab slipped away to safety.