Pushpavaneswarar Temple

The Pushpavaneswarar Temple is located in Kandiyur and is dedicated to God Pushpavaneswarar. According to the scriptures, Cauvery was born from the Kamandala water (pot carried by rishis) of Sage Agasthyar when a crow knocked it upside down. The river flowed eastward through Senthalai, Andili, Vellambiyur, Arcot, Kandiyur, Tiruchotruthurai, Tirupazhanam, Tiruvaiyaru, Tiruneithanam and up to Sathanur and then became stagnant. Places in between as Konerirajapuram, Karuppur, Nadukaveri, Tiruvalampozhil, Tirupoonturuthi were submerged. Indira, king of Devas in the celestial world, worshipped God Iyarappar and took the Cauvery further east to make these places fertile. On this run, Kandiyur was the first on the way. Then came Poonthuruthi with river sand. This place was soft as a flower (poo in Tamil), hence the place came to be known as Poonthuruthi. This is mentioned in the Thevaram hymns. Places between rivers are called Thuruthi. There is also such a thuruthi called Kuthalam on the eastern bank. God Indra was cursed by Rishi Gautama to have 1000 ugly protrusions on his body as a punishment for his immoral desire of the Rishi's wife. While God Indra was passing through many Shiva shrines for remedy from the curse, he came here, worshipped God Shiva with flowers and was absolved of his curse. As God Indra worshipped the God with fragrant flowers, the place was named Poonthuruthi, according to another story. Veena Dakshinamurthy, Arthanareeswarar, Bikshadanar, Sapthamadhas and Vinayaka grace in individual shrines in the prakaras. The history of the Nalvar (Gnanasambandar, Tirunavukkarasar, Sundarar and Manickavasagar) are painted on the wall. There are also the Somaskanda Mandap and Nataraja Sabha. The fact that God Vishnu and Sri Mahalakshmi worshipped here is evidenced by the sculptures in the tower built during the rule of the Naickers. Other stories relating to the name of Poonthuruthi is that Poomagal worshipped here Nandideva supplied flowers (Poo) for the God's wedding Many places in the Chola region were covered with dense flower gardens. The name was later translated as Pushpavanam (Pushpa - 'Flower', Vanam - 'Dense Gardens') in the year 1782 during the rule of Thanjavur Tulasi Maharaja.