Thiruvanaikaval kovil-Akilandeswari with Jambukeshwarar

Last month I visited two temples at Tiruchirappalli, both are very ancient temples.

The first one is  Jambukeshwarar - Akilandeswari temple.  The temple is in Thiruvanaikaval which is just 3 km away from another very famous and ancient temple for God Vishnu, Srirangam. These two temples located on an island formed by river Cauvery.

History of the temple:
Once Devi Parvathy was making fun of Lord Siva about his penance for the betterment of human being. So Lord Shiva sent Parvathi to earth from Kailash as a punishment. She came to Thiruvanikaval and made a lingam with sand in the river Cauvery(Ponny) and worshiped Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva at last gave dharshan to  Parvathy and gave her updesa. So this temple is one of the Updesa temples.
This place is one of the pancha boothas -water.

As Parvathy worshipped shiva at this place even now the pandit who is doing poojas at the Amman temple(archagar) dresses like woman and do pooja to KoMatha(cow) and Lord shiva. This is a very famous ritual at this temple every day.

Priest is doing ko pooja dressing like a woman

The name for Thiru-Aanai-kaa

Two shiva ganas (Shiva's deciples) Malyavan and Pushpandanta were always fighting for one thing or other. During one fight Malyavan cursed Pushpandanta to become as an elephant and the later cursed the Malyavan to become as a spider.

So they came to Jambukeshwaram in the form of elephant and spider and started worshiping Lord Shiva. Daily the elephant brought water from river Cauvery and do abishekam to the lingam. The spider spun the web to protect the lingam from sun light and prevent the dry leaves falling on the lingam. But in the morning the elephant saw the web and destroy that thinking that is a dust, and cleaned the lingam by pouring water as abishekam. This happened for some days and one day the spider got angry and crawled to the elephant's trunk and bit the elephant till death by killing it self . Since the elephant(aanai) worshiped this holy(thiru) place which situated in the forest (kaa), this place is called as Thiru aanai kaa or Thiruvanaikaval.

In the next birth the spider born as Chola king (Chengot) and built 70 Shiva temples and this temple is one among them. Remembering his enmity with the elephant the king built the main sanctorum for Lord shiva in such a way that not even a small elephant can enter that sanctorum. 

Jambukeshwaram:

The another name for this place Jambukeshwaram and the God is known as Jambukeshwarar. The reason for this name is another myth.

Once Sage Jambu munivar got a very rare white jamun fruit and offered to Lord Shiva. Shiva ate that and spit the seed. The Jambu Munivar ate that seed as it came from the God, and one tree was started growing on head.  The sage prayed to Lord that he should take his abode under that tree. After some time Parvathy Devi came to earth and built a lingam under that tree and Lord Shiva take his abode under the same tree. So this place known as Jambukeshwaram.