The Kailasanathar temple known as the
Navagrahastalam associated with Chandra the moon, is located in the
hamlet of Tingaloor not far from Tiruvaiyaru
near Thanjavur in Tamilnadu. The small temple here has a small shrine dedicated to
Chandran.
This is an ancient Saivite
shrine, associated with the life of Tirunavukkarasar, although no Tevara
Patikam dedicated to the shrine has been discovered so far. Tirunavukkarasar has
mentioned Tingaloor in a patikam of 10 songs dedicated to another Shivastalam, and hence
Tingalur constitutes on of the Tevara Vaippu talangal.
Legend has it that there lived a merchant Appoodi
Adikal in the village of Tingaloor who was a devotee of Shiva. Appoodi Adikal held
Tirunavukkarasar in high regard and looked forward to the day when he would be able to
host the saint poet. The day arrived, but his son got killed by a venomous snake bite
while the saint was being hosted. The saint moved by Appoodi Adikal's devotion is said to
have miraculously restored the lad to life.
Templenet thanks Mr. C. Vedanarayanan (UK) for the
photograph of Tingalur shown above.
