Arunajadeswarar Temple, Thiruppanandal

The Shiva temple whose lingam stands at a tilt. A woman named Thadagai came daily with a garland, the tradition holds, and one day could not get it over him — one account says her sari was slipping and she had only one hand free, another that she was there on a vow for a child — so the god leaned to receive it, and stayed leaning; a Chola king tried elephants and horses and could not straighten it, and the Nayanar Kungiliya Kalaya, arriving from Thirukkadaiyur, tied a rope from his own neck to the shaft and pulled. The temple takes its other name, Thalavaneswarar, from the palmyra grove it stands in — thalam is the palm, and two of the trees still stand in the precinct. The town's Kasi Mutt, seated here, holds many shrines across the delta.