Thirupurandhagar Koovaram

The temple features:

This temple is located in Koovaram, seventeen kms from Thiruvalur.
The carpet area of the temple is 1,20,400 sqft and is built on the southern side of the koovam river bank.It has a flat tower and two corridors.(Pragarams)
The deity is called Thirupurandhagar and it is said that it is self incarnated in the east facing pose. The lord's consort Devi Thirupurandhagi has separate sanctum also in the east facing pose. The temple tree is Bilvam and the theertham is called koovagni.

The saint who sang hymns on the Lord:
Thiru-gnana-sambandhar.

Legend:
When the Lord went to destroy the 3 demons Tharukashan, Kamalakshan and Vidyumali the axis of his chariat broke. Henceforth this kshetram came to be called Koovaram.(axis means koovaram in Tamil language)
This place has another name Thiruvirkolam because the lord is holding a bow and arrows.

Once there was a dance competition between the Lord and Devi in Thiruvalankadu. Devi met the competition with frenzy and she became black in color. The Lord also performed vigorously but could not match devi. The vibrations of the dances shook the entire universe. Sri Vishnu wanted to stop this and indicated to the Lord to raise his legs up till his head while dancing. Lord shiva did accordingly. Devi could not raise her leg up too and so was defeated. The lord called her Kali (because she became black in color) and said that he would perform "Raksha Nadanam" (dance of protection) in Koovaram. So she should be there as Raksha devi Goddess to protect the people. The Goddess graciously agreed.

The wonder here is the lingam becomes white in color if excess rain is forecast and in the same way if any thing bad was to happen the deity would become reddish in colour.
This magnificent change in color is seen even today.

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