In
due course, the spider was reborn as the son of the Chola king Subhadeva and his queen
Kamalavati. The boy was named
Kosenkannan (king of the red eye) and inherited his father's kingdom. He possessed the
faculty of remembering his former births and constructed a temple of Siva near the White
Jambu tree in the Sacred Elephant Grove where he, as a spider, had formerly worshipped the
Lingam.
The legend connected with the, origin of this
festival is as follows:
Once Lord Brahma became very proud about his position as the Creator of the Universe and
fell in love with a beautiful girl whom he had created. Consequently he
began to lose his powers step, by step and all people created by him turned vicious and
died an early death. Then Brahma came to realize the sin committed by him and reached this
place to conduct penance and thus to wash off the sin. Lord Siva wanted to test the
sincerity of Brahma in conducting the penance. |
