Thanthondreeswarar Temple, Akkur

Thanthondreeswarar Temple stands at Akkur in Mayiladuthurai district. Shiva is worshipped here as Thanthondriappar and his consort as Valnedunkanni. It is one of the 275 Paadal Petra Sthalams, praised in the Tevaram by Tirugnanasambandar and Tirunavukkarasar, and it has a shrine to Sirappuli Nayanar, a saint linked with the temple.

The temple's legend tells of a Chola king with an illness no doctor could cure, whom Shiva told in a dream to feed a thousand people for 48 days. Each day one of the thousand seats stayed empty, until on the last day an old man filled it; asked who he was, he answered 'yaarukku oor?', 'whose place?', which is said to have become the name Akkur. Realising the guest was Shiva, called here Aayirathil Oruvan, 'one in a thousand', the king dug the mound, found a linga still believed to bear the scar of the digging, built the temple and was cured. Another story links the site to Kochchenga Chola, guided to a raised spot where konrai, paaku (betel) and vilvam trees grew, giving the name Thanthondri Maadam.