Places to Visit in Sirkazhi

In one Sirkazhi sanctuary Shiva is worshipped on three storeys at once — as a lingam, as a lord riding a stone boat, and as Bhairava above — in the town where the greatest of the Tamil poet-saints was born.

A cluster of eleven Vishnu temples around Thirunangur village that together form part of the 108 Divya Desams glorified in the Nalayira Divya Prabandham. All eleven were sanctified by Tirumangai Alvar, and the oldest date to the reign of the Chola king Parantaka I. Each has a distinct presiding deity, from Gopalakrishnan at Thirukkavalampadi to Vaikuntanathan at Thiruvaikunda Vinnagaram. Every year in the Tamil month of Thai the processional deities of all eleven gather here for the spectacular Garuda Sevai festival.

A Shiva temple in Kuthalam town, about 12 km from Mayiladuthurai on the road to Kumbakonam, and one of the 276 Paadal Petra Sthalams praised in the Thevaram. It is the 154th Paadal Petra Sthalam and the 37th on the south bank of the Cauvery, where Shiva is worshipped as a self-manifested (Swayambu) deity. By legend the sage Bharatha performed a yagna here from which Parvathi emerged as a child, tying the site into the Thirumanancheri divine-wedding circuit.

A Shiva temple about midway between Mayiladuthurai and Kumbakonam, forming part of the sacred circuit that narrates the celestial wedding of Shiva and Parvathi. Its name reflects the belief that the wedding ceremony, including the yagna (velvi), was performed here, and the deity is worshipped as Kalyanasundareswarar (Manavaleswarar). It complements nearby Ethirkolpadi and Thirumanancheri, which mark other episodes of the same wedding legend.

Two days along the Nagapattinam–Mayiladuthurai coast — Velankanni’s basilica, Nagore’s dargah, Chola Shiva temples and the Danish fort at Tranquebar, in a workable route.

A sacred bathing ghat on the Cauvery at Mayiladuthurai that is the focus of the celebrated Thula Snanam pilgrimage, when devotees take a ritual dip during the Tamil month of Aippasi (Thula). Its most important day, Kadai Muzhukku (Mudavan Muzhukku), draws huge crowds who believe all sacred rivers converge here. The ghat adjoins the Mayuranathaswamy temple and is one of six Cauvery-bank sites regarded as equivalent to Kasi (Varanasi).

An archaeological site where in early 2006 a polished Neolithic stone celt engraved with four signs resembling the Indus script was discovered by a local schoolteacher. Epigraphist Iravatham Mahadevan saw it as strong evidence that Neolithic Tamil Nadu and the Indus Valley people may have shared a Dravidian language. Later ASI excavations yielded Megalithic/Iron Age pottery, urns and bowls dated between roughly 300 BCE and 100 CE.