The Life
Eripatha of Karur walked the streets bearing a battle-axe, ready to protect Shiva's servants and punish any offence against them. The aged devotee Sivakami Andar daily gathered fresh flowers to weave garlands for the Lord. One day the Chola king's royal elephant snatched and trampled his flower-basket. Hearing the old man's grief, Eripatha overtook the elephant and slew it with a single stroke of his axe, then killed its mahouts as well. When the king came prepared to accept punishment for his elephant's crime, Eripatha, ashamed of the ruin caused, moved to turn the axe upon himself. Then a divine voice rang out: all this had happened to make known his devotion. The elephant and mahouts rose alive, and the crushed flowers lay fresh once more in the basket.