திருவாலங்காடு வடாரண்யேசுவரர் கோயில்Thiruvalangadu Vadaranyeswarar Temple

Sthala Mahātmyam

Thiruvalangadu, the banyan forest of the sacred dance, enshrines the Ratna Sabhai, the Hall of Gems, where Vadaranyeswarar in his Nataraja form as Ratna Sabhapati performs the fierce Urdhva Tandava. The sthala legend recounts a dance contest between Shiva and Goddess Kali, who ruled the surrounding forest. Matching her step for step, Shiva at last raised one leg vertically skyward in the Urdhva pose; Kali, out of feminine modesty, would not imitate it and conceded the contest, whereupon she was pacified and settled at the forest's edge. The eight-armed bronze Nataraja here stands with the raised leg pointing upward, flanked by his consort and by the poet-saint Karaikkal Ammaiyar. This mother of Karaikkal, one of the sixty-three Nayanmars, sang the Lord's praise and, deeming it irreverent to tread the holy ground, approached upon her head; her shrine lies within the temple. The consort goddess is Vandarkuzhali. Sung in the Thevaram, the temple is a revered Paadal Petra Sthalam, and Maha Shivaratri is its foremost festival, kept with night-long vigil before the dancing Lord.