Manikandeswarar Temple, Thirumalpur

Manikandeswarar Temple, known as Thirumarperu, stands on the Ocheri–Tirumalpur road at Tirumalpur on the outskirts of Kanchipuram. It is dedicated to Shiva as Manikandeswarar, with Parvati as Karunai Nayagi, and is a Paadal Petra Sthalam praised by Appar. Legend says Vishnu (Tirumal) worshipped Shiva here daily with a thousand flowers to regain the Sudarshana discus; when Shiva hid one flower, Vishnu offered his own eye, and Shiva granted the discus. The town's name is said to come from this worship.

Believed to date from the 9th-century Chola period, the temple received patronage from Aditya I to Rajaraja I, who in 988 donated a golden flower to the deity. The area itself is old, with Palaeolithic tools and megalithic pottery found nearby. A granite wall encloses the shrines, and unusually the Nandi here stands rather than sits.