Mahalingar at Tiruvida-marudur

 The temple features:

This temple is located at Tiruvida-marudur about nine miles in the north-east direction from Kumbakonam on the banks of river couvery . The carpet area of the temple is 9,12,000 sqft and is built facing east. It has seven towers in seven stages. The temple has7 corridors.(saptha- pragarams)

The deity is called Mahalingar in the east facing pose and it is said the deity is self incarnated. The lord's consort Devi Perunalamamulai-Amman has a seperate Sanctum also facing east.
There are several 'teerthams' but Karunya theertham is inside of the temple.
The temple tree is Marudham.
This place is also called Idai-Marudhu, Bilva-Vanam, Shanbaga-Aaranyam, Sakthi puram, Thabo-vanam,Jyothi puram and so on. There are151 stone inscriptions giving the details about this kshetram.

The saints who sang hymns on the Lord:
Thirugnasambandhar, and  Thiru navukarasar

The significance of this place: Siva was worshipped by Saraswathi, Lakshmi, Kaali, the Vedas, Vasishtar, Skanda, Vishnu and Agastya. It is said once they were affected by evil spirits as a result of past sins.. Hence to get relief from the sins they all came to this place and offered their prayers to this deity. They were rid of the evil spirits.

Legend:is Once a monarch of Pandiya dynasty suffered from amnesia. He forgot every thing and he could not talk also. According to the advise of the kingdom's astrologer he came to this temple and stayed there for forty days praying to the Lord. Surprisingly, the king was cured from the disease. He happily endowed much wealth to this temple.

There are five lingas around this temple. They are Mahalingam, Viswanathar, Rishi-pureeswarar, Aatma-nathar and Chokka-nathar. So this kshetram is called Pancha Linga kshetram. Mahalingam is the presiding deity. One of the interesting practice here is that an abhishekam (Anointing) is performed to Chokkanathar singing 'Amirdha-varshni' raga for a good monsoon.
Sambandar has sung also on Samba Dakshinamurthy enshrined here along with his consort. Stone inscriptions that are about 1200 years old are found in this temple.

Architecture: This is a huge temple constructed in the Dravidian style with lofty towers and sprawling circumambulatory paths. There are 7 prakarams, the outermost being known as the Aswamedha Prakaram. The inner prakarams are known as Kodumudi prakaram and Pranava prakaram. There is also a Sakti temple within the temple complex dedicated to Mookambika built in the North Indian style. 

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