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 More celebrated as the birthplace of the three savants of Carnatic music - Muthuswami Dikshitar, Syama Sastri and Saint Tyagaraja, Tiruvarur has one of the most ancient temples of Tamil Nadu, dedicated to Shiva. Tiruvarur, a very well-known shrine, is situated in Thanjavur, connected by rail, where the branch lines of Mayuram - Karaikudi and Thanjavur - Nagapatttinam intersect. The Lord is known as Tyagaraja, and His Consort, Padam-piriyaal (one who does not leave the feet of Her Lord) and
Neelotpalavalli.
The monkey and the maharaja
 When Lord Shiva and His Consort were staying in a garden at the foot of Mount Kailash, a monkey was playing about in the tree behind them. It was a
vilva tree, the leaves of which are offered in
puja to the Lord. The frisky movement of the monkey made the leaves of the tree fall on His head and the Lord was pleased with the monkey and blessed it. The monkey was reborn in the Chola dynasty as king Muchukunda who ruled the grand and great kingdom of Cholas with Karuvur as its capital.
Muchukunda was known for his valour. It so happened that an asura, known as Vala, was troubling the celestials and Indra sought the help of Muchukunda in eliminating the ogre. The Chola king willingly joined hands with Indra and defeated Vala in a fierce battle. The ogre was eventually killed by Indra. King Muchukunda offered prayers to Lord Shiva at the end of the battle. The Lord appeared before him and asked him to construct a temple for him in
Tiruvarur.
Muchukunda was enchanted by the
Somaskanda Murthi that Indra was worshipping and requested that the idol be gifted to him. Indra, however, was hesitant to part with his favourite deity. He placed six other idols, similar to the
Somaskanda Murthi that he was worshipping, together with the original idol and asked the king to select the idol that he wanted to take with him. By the grace of Lord Shiva, the king selected the
Murthi that he desired to take with him. Indra happily parted with the idol and also gifted the other six idols to the king.
The king consecrated the idol - now known as Achaleeswarar. The peculiarity about the idol is that its shadow could only be seen in the eastern direction.
The temple
 Built by King Muchukunda, the area occupied by the temple is spread over a vast area, measuring about 20 acres, with the temple tank, Kamalalyam occupying another 25 acres of land. This tank is considered to be the biggest in South India and has a temple at the centre, dedicated to Kamala, Mahalakshmi.
Tiruvarur is one of the seven most celebrated places dedicated to Lord Shiva, the other six being Tirumaraikkkadu, Tirunagai, Tirukkolili, Tirukkaramayil, Tiruvanmiyur and Tirunallar. Yet another unique feature about the temple is that the Navagraha idols are installed in a straight line, looking at the shrine, unlike the usual formation. The temple has 3
prakarams (corridors) and a series of gopurams (towers) tapering in size as one proceeds towards the sanctum sanctorum. There are a total of seven towers. The western and northern
gopurams were constructed during the 17th - 18th centuries, though they resemble the towers that were constructed much earlier, in style.
Both Tiru-gnana-sambandar and Tiru-navuk-karasar have sung of the glory of Tiruvarur.
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