Veerateswar at Thiru-Virkudi

 The temple features:

This temple is located in Thiru-Virkudi about 10 kms from Nannilam in Nagai district.
The carpet area of the temple is 48,500 sqft and is built facing west. It has a tower in five stages. The temple has 2 corridors.(Pragarams)

The deity is called Veerateswarar and is in the east facing pose. It is said the deity is self-incarnated.
The Lord's consort Devi Elaar Kuzhali Amman has a separate Sanctum facing south.
There is a theertham called Chakkara-theertham and it is located opposite to the temple.
The temple tree is Thulasi

The saints who sang hymns on the Lord:
Thiru-navu-k-arasar, Thiru-gnana-sambandhar and Sundarar

There are some stone inscriptions giving the details about this kshetram.

Significance of this temple is that Lord Siva did 8 valourous deeds in 8 differant places (called Ashta-Veera-lakshnam) and this is one of those 'sthalams' where Lord Siva killed Demon Jalandhara.

Legend: Once Indira went to Kailash to have Lord Siva's Darshan. But Indira could not see the Lord. Instead he met a Digambaran.(Digambaran is a bare bodied person with the holy ash all over his body ) Indira was very upset. He enquired angrily of Digambaran the where about of Lord Siva. Digambaran did not answer.(The Digambaran was Lord Siva himself) Indira could not identify him. Furiously he took his 'Vajrayudham' (weapon) and threw it on Digambaran. Siva noticed Indira's wicked action and opened his third eye and burnt Indira to ashes.Later according to (the divine preceptor) Brahaspathy's request the Lord gave life to Indira.The preceptor pleaded with Siva to look at the sea to calm him down. According to Brahaspathy's request The lord saw the sea and his anger came out as a fire ball from his third-eye and fell into the sea. From this sprang a child demon and it began to cry loudly.

The king of the ocean prayed to Lord Brahma to stop the child crying and to name him. Brahma pleased with his prayer appeared before the king . According to the king's prayer Brahma took the child and put him on his lap. But the child got up and squeezed the Lord's neck. Because of the child's rudeness the crater suffocated and pushed the child out. The Lord said to the king of ocean (Samudhira-Rajan) that as the child was born from water so the Lord wished to name him as 'Jalandiran'. The crater also cursed the child that his death would occur from Siva's anger and the Lord disappeared. So the child came to be known as Jalandiran

Jalandran grew up as an young man and married a girl named Brundai. That girl was devotedly loving her husband and she was a very truthful wife to her husband. The demon began to give trouble to devas and sages. They were struggling for long years. One day they all went to Brahma and asked for his help to solve the demon problem. But the creator told to the Devas the background of the child and said no one could do anything except Lord Siva.

All devas sadly returned their places thought of sage Naradha and he appeared before them. Devas said "Naradha we are seeking a help from you. Go to kailash and meet the Lord and tell him about our sufferings with demon Jalandhara".
Naradha consoled devas and went to Kailash to meet Lord Siva. He met the Lord and explained about devas' defeat in the war with demon Jalandharan. The Lord said "Naradha convey the massage to devas that Jalandhira's end is nearing. Soon I will be there to save devas. Till then they all should have patience for some time." Also the Lord told Naradha "make the demon hate me". Naradha replied humbly to Siva "yes my Lord I will do the same" and he went away.

Naradha came down and went to demon Jalandhira's place. Jalandhira gave a warm welcome to the sage. The sage praised his hospitality and said " Jalandhira you are a great king and you have plenty of wealth but I feel if you have parvathi as your queen then you will be complete in all respects."
With sage Naradha's advise the demon sent a messanger to kailash to threaten Siva. The Messenger went to kailash and said to Siva that he should hand over Parvathi to Jalandhira; otherwise he would smash his abode.

In the mean time the demon changed himself in the likeness of Siva and went to Parvathi's place. But the Devi realized that he was not Siva because he entered her abode without prior information to her maids as Siva normally did. So she disappeared.

Siva heard this news through his 'gana's and got very angry and went to fight with the demon. In every round Jalandra was winning. So the Lord drew the picture of a disk on the ground and asked the demon to lift it. But Jalandhra could not. Siva lifted it with ease and threw it on the demon killing him instantly.

All the devas were relieved and were very happy. They praised Lord Siva

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