The Pancha Bhoota Sthalams

The five gross elements belong among the thirty-six tattvas; their temple associations disclose Siva's presence without making His substance into matter.

✦Five within thirty-six

Saiva Siddhanta counts the five gross elements, பூதங்கள், among the twenty-four Atma tattvas within the full thirty-six. Their material basis belongs to Mayai. Siva, Pati, orders and activates the world through His power; He does not change His own nature into earth, water or the other elements. Unmai Vilakkam explains this equipment of embodied experience; The 36 Tattvas sets out the complete arrangement.

“Earth temple” therefore names the way Siva is worshipped and manifested at Kanchi. It does not confine Him to earth. The same distinction holds at the other four shrines: a particular element gives a particular place its sign, while the Lord remains the giver of knowledge and grace.

Sivagnana Siddhiyar, Supakkam 38, makes the distinction through clay, wheel and potter: Mayai supplies the material, Siva's Sakti brings it into form, and Siva is the knowing maker. His power is inseparable from Him.

These are five named associations within a world made from all five elements. Kanchi also has water and lamps; Tiruvanaikaval also has earth and air. The distinction directs attention within worship.

✦Where the lists differ

Some accounts also name Tiruvarur as an earth shrine: M. Shanmugampillai's Tamil–Tamil Agaramuthali, under பஞ்சலிங்கம், includes both Kanchi and Arur, and the Tiruvarur account associates its Moolattana linga with anthill earth.

✦In practice today

Devotees visit the five as a connected pilgrimage, sometimes in one journey and sometimes over several visits. The element order gives a way to remember them; the road determines the practical order of a particular journey. Kalahasti lies north of the Tamil Nadu temples, while Tiruvanaikaval is near Tiruchirappalli and Chidambaram is farther east, towards the coast.

Take a temple's hymn with its name. Read the Tamil, listen to its singing, and attend to the river, tree or hill it describes. The five belong within The 276 Padal Petra Sthalams, whose full list extends the pilgrimage beyond this group. Their shared classification does not replace the particular worship of each temple.

At Ekambareswarar, earth is approached through a sand linga and Uma's act of holding it against the flood.

✦The linga beneath the mango tree

Place: Kanchipuram, in northern Tamil Nadu. Lord: Ekambareswarar or Ekambaranathar, ஏகாம்பரநாதர். The Tevaram calls the place Kachchi Ekambam, கச்சி ஏகம்பம்.

The shrine is associated with the Prithivi-linga, பிருதிவி இலிங்கம், the earth linga held to have been fashioned from sand. Its sand form shapes the care given to it: the temple account describes liquid abhishekam being offered to the pedestal rather than poured over the sand linga itself. The mango tree belongs to the remembered setting of Uma's worship.

✦Uma holds what she has made

The temple stories are told as tradition remembers them. At Kanchi, Uma comes to perform penance and makes a linga from sand beneath a mango tree. When floodwater threatens to carry it away, she embraces it. Siva receives her worship and appears to her; the marks of her embrace are remembered in the linga. The account is told in the Kanchi Puranam and within Sekkizhar's Tirukkurippu Thondar Puranam.

The earth association has a precise devotional shape. Sand can be gathered and formed; a flood can undo that form. Uma's embrace gives the story an action that a pilgrim can remember before the shrine: care is directed towards the Lord through the form that receives worship.

✦Sundarar sees again

Sambandar, Appar and Sundarar all sang at Ekambam. Sundarar's 7.61.1, in Tirumurai 7, brings Uma's continuing worship beside his own recovery of sight at Kanchi.

The stanza moves from the Lord's saving act to His presence in the remembering mind, then to Uma and to the singer himself. Kanchi is the place where these relations meet. The sand linga remains the temple's earth sign; the song addresses the Lord who can receive worship and restore sight.

At Jambukeswarar, water enters the sanctum itself, and the worship remembers Akilandeswari learning from and serving Siva.

✦Water around the linga

Place: Tiruvanaikaval, near Srirangam in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu. Lord: Jambukeswarar, ஜம்புகேசுவரர். The hymn-place is Tiru Anaikka, திருஆனைக்கா.

Jambukeswarar is worshipped as the Appu-linga, அப்பு இலிங்கம். A natural spring feeds water into the sanctum, around the visible linga; the district's temple account describes it as partially submerged. Water is therefore encountered inside the shrine, rather than only in a tank outside it.

Jambu names the naval tree, நாவல். The white naval tree, வெண்ணாவல், belongs to the temple's sacred setting and appears in Sambandar's hymn. River, tree and sanctum give the water association a landscape as well as a ritual form.

✦Akilandeswari's worship

The temple account tells of Akilandeswari, அகிலாண்டேசுவரி, gathering Kaveri water into a linga and worshipping Siva beneath the naval tree. Siva teaches her. The daily midday worship carries this relationship into ritual: the priest takes the Goddess's role, wearing feminine attire as he approaches and worships Jambukeswarar.

Another remembered account tells of an elephant bathing the linga with water and a spider weaving a shelter above it. The elephant removes the web; their conflicting offerings end in their deaths. The spider is reborn as Kochchengat Chola, whose life Sekkizhar tells in Periya Puranam. The story gives Tiru Anaikka, the elephant's grove, its devotional memory.

✦The tree in the song

Sambandar, Appar and Sundarar sang at this temple. Sambandar's 2.23.1, in Tirumurai 2, speaks through a mother describing her daughter's love for the Lord.

The short lines bring the Lord close through repeated address. The white naval tree fixes that love in a named place. Appar's 6.63.1 also sings the Lord of Anaikka as a gathered fullness of water, with honey and milk beside it in the language of sweetness.

Arunachala is remembered as Siva's column of light, while the linga and the Karthigai beacon bring that account into temple worship.

✦Linga, hill and flame

Place: Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, at the foot of Annamalai. Lord: Arunachaleswarar or Annamalaiyar, அருணாசலேசுவரர், அண்ணாமலையார். The Tevaram names Annamalai, அண்ணாமலை.

The temple's self-manifest linga is worshipped as the fire association of the five. It is a linga receiving daily worship; the fire account also embraces the hill rising behind the temple. Arunachala is revered as Siva's manifestation, and walking around the hill is called girivalam, கிரிவலம்.

✦The light that could not be measured

Brahma and Vishnu dispute their precedence. Siva appears as a column of fire. Vishnu takes the form of a boar and searches below for its base; Brahma takes the form of a swan and flies upwards for its summit. Neither reaches an end. The hill is remembered as the form in which that fiery manifestation became accessible to worship.

The account turns a contest over precedence towards the limits of the search itself. Siva's presence exceeds the measurement by which Brahma and Vishnu seek to settle their dispute. The shrine makes that presence approachable without claiming to contain its extent.

At Karthigai Deepam, கார்த்திகை தீபம், the beacon is lit on the hill's summit. A flame seen from the temple and the surrounding town recalls the column of light. The festival sequence belongs with Festivals and Guru Pujas; the fire association continues in the daily worship between festivals.

✦A hill alive in the hymn

Sambandar and Appar sang at Annamalai. Sambandar's 1.10.1, in Tirumurai 1, lets the pilgrim hear the mountain's waterfalls as well as remember the fire.

The stanza's hill has water, sound and shining stones. Its fire association gathers this living place into a particular remembrance of Siva. The hymn carries that remembrance towards the devotee's need: release from the deeds that bind.

At Kalahasti, a visible linga and a moving lamp flame direct attention to air, while Kannappar's care gives devotion its remembered action.

✦What moves the flame

Place: Srikalahasti in Tirupati district, Andhra Pradesh, beside the Swarnamukhi river, called Mugali, முகலி, in the Tamil hymns. Lord: Kalahastheeswarar, காளத்திநாதர். The Tevaram names Tirukkalatti, திருக்காளத்தி.

The visible shrine linga is worshipped as the Vayu-linga, வாயு இலிங்கம். Temple accounts describe the flickering sanctum lamp as the sign through which devotees recognise the air association. The flame makes movement visible while the air itself escapes the eye.

The Devasthanam's account tells of Vayu performing penance before Siva. Siva receives his devotion and grants that the linga will bear Vayu's name. The air association thus belongs to a story of worship as well as to the lamp.

✦Kannappar attends to the Lord

Sekkizhar's Kannappar Puranam tells of the hunter Tinnan finding Siva at Kalahasti. He carries water in his mouth, flowers in his hair and meat in his hands. The priest Sivakosari is troubled by the offerings; Siva asks him to watch the hunter's love.

When an eye of the linga bleeds, Tinnan tries to heal it. He offers his own eye, then prepares to offer the other, marking its place with his foot so that he can find it after losing his sight. Siva stops his hand and calls him Kannappar. Read the fuller account in Stories of the Nayanmars, and the reflection on his love in Tirukkalirruppadiyar, verse 52.

The episode is Ilai malinda sarukkam, Kannappar Puranam, verses 155–185 in Periya Puranam. It places the devotee's intent before the reader through the care he gives, while Siva makes the priest a witness to it.

✦The river enters the heart

Sambandar, Appar and Sundarar sang at Kalahasti. Sambandar's 3.36.1, in Tirumurai 3, places Siva and Uma beside the river before bringing their presence into the singer's mind.

The verse gives air a quiet place within the landscape: a breeze in the groves beside a river carrying trees. Its last line changes the distance. The pilgrim may travel to Kalahasti; the singer already holds the Lord's feet within his mind.

At Tillai, the dancing form and the space of the Chidambara rahasyam are held together in worship.

✦The hall and its disclosure

Place: Chidambaram in Cuddalore district, Tamil Nadu. Lord: Nataraja, நடராசர், with Sivakami, சிவகாமி. The Tevaram calls the place Tillai, தில்லை, and its dance hall Chitrambalam, சிற்றம்பலம்.

The element association is Akasa, ஆகாசம், space. Beside Nataraja, a curtained space is disclosed in the Chidambara rahasyam, சிதம்பர இரகசியம், the “secret of Chidambaram”. Golden vilva leaves mark the worshipped space. It is honoured as the Akasa-linga, ஆகாச இலிங்கம்: the pilgrim encounters a disclosure of presence without the solid outline of a linga.

This does not exhaust the temple's forms of worship. The crystal linga, Chandramaulisvara, receives ritual bathing, and Tirumoolattana has its own linga shrine. Nataraja gives Siva a visible dancing form. The space association belongs beside these forms within the same temple.

✦The dance given to the sages

The account preserved in Thillai Perungoyil Varalaru tells of Vyagrapada, வியாக்கிரபாதர், worshipping Siva in the Tillai forest and Patanjali, பதஞ்சலி, coming with the desire to see His dance. Siva grants that sight. The sages ask that worship and the vision of the dance continue for devotees who come after them, and He receives their prayer.

The hall is consequently a place into which later worshippers enter. The story joins a particular vision to a continuing gift. For the gestures of the dancing form and their Siddhanta meaning, continue to Nataraja and the five acts and Unmai Vilakkam.

✦Appar's desire to behold

Sambandar, Appar and Sundarar sang at Tillai. Appar's 4.81.4, in Tirumurai 4, attends to the dancing form feature by feature.

Appar's attention settles on brows, smile, hair, ash and foot. Human birth, with its suffering and limitation, becomes something he can desire for the sake of that sight. The visible form gives his longing a focus; the adjacent worship of space opens the mind to presence beyond the outline it sees.

Follow the five places through their Tamil hymns, temple accounts and the Siddhanta teaching on the elements.

✦The five hymns

• Sundarar, Tevaram 7.61, at Sivaya: Kachchi Ekambam, the recovery of sight and Uma's worship; stanza 1 is quoted above.
• Sambandar, Tevaram 2.23, at Shaivam: the mother and daughter voice at the white naval tree; stanza 1 is quoted above.
• Appar, Tevaram 6.63: the Lord of Anaikka sung through the gathered fullness of water.
• Sambandar, Tevaram 1.10: Annamalai's hill, waterfalls and the Lord with Uma; stanza 1 is quoted above.
• Sambandar's Third Tirumurai, first portion, at Project Madurai: find 3.36, Tirukkalatti; stanza 1 places the Lord beside the Mugali.
• Appar, Tevaram 4.81: Tillai and the dancing form; stanza 4 is quoted above.

✦The temples and their accounts

• Shivatemples' accounts of Ekambareswarar, Jambukeswarar, Arunachaleswarar and Nataraja: the shrines, remembered stories and Tevaram singers.
• Tiruchirappalli district's Jambukeswarar account and Incredible India's Tiruvanaikaval account: water around the linga and the spring in the sanctum.
• Tiruvannamalai district's accounts of Karthigai Deepam and girivalam: the fire story, the hill and the continuing pilgrimage around it.
• Dinamani's Tiruvanaikka account: Akilandeswari's water-linga worship, the naval tree and the midday ritual.
• Srikalahasti Devasthanam's account: the Swarnamukhi setting, Vayu's worship and the Vayu-linga; the Kalahasti temple presentation describes the sanctum lamp.
• Periya Puranam, Ilai malinda sarukkam: Kannappar Puranam, especially local verses 155–185.
• K. Vellaivarananar's Thillai Perungoyil Varalaru: the sages, the halls, Tirumoolattana and the crystal-linga worship. The older Chidambaram essay describes the curtain before the Akasa-linga; Someshwar Gurumath's Chidambaram account describes the golden vilva leaves beside Nataraja.
• M. Shanmugampillai's Tamil–Tamil Agaramuthali, பஞ்சலிங்கம், at Tamil Virtual Academy, and its Tiruvarur account: the earth association shared by Kanchi and Arur and Tiruvarur's anthill-earth linga.

✦Carry the journey into study

The 36 Tattvas explains the five elements within the instruments of experience. The temple and its plan gives a way to follow worship from entrance to sanctum. The 276 Padal Petra Sthalams supplies the full list of hymn-places. Read Festivals and Guru Pujas for Karthigai Deepam, and Nataraja and the five acts for the dance at Tillai.

Among the Sastras, Unmai Vilakkam joins the tattvas to the soul's distinction from them and then to Nataraja's dance. Tirukkalirruppadiyar, verse 52, asks who can know the love of Kannappar and the Lord of Kalahasti. Each gives a way for the pilgrimage to continue after the traveller has returned home.