Sankaranarayana Swamy Temple - Sankarankovil

The unearthing of a Lingam from a small dune in the 10th century resulted in the otherwise unknown Sankarankovil, a small town 50 km from Tirunelveli. The place is very popular after the treasure was consecrated as the ‘sankaralingam' deity in the temple dedicated to Sankaranarayana Swamy. It was in the 11th century, king Ukkrapandian ruled over Ukkirankottai. He used to go over to Madurai to worship lord Shiva. One day, when he was proceeding to Madurai into the Punnai (Calophyllum inophyllum) forest region, the elephant in which he was travelling tusked the earth on the way and made a pit. King understood that the elephant had demolished the ant hill. There came out a tailless snake of divine physique which made the king freeze.

The king wanted to check the reason behind this unusual sight and dig more into the ant hill. He excavated a Lingam from it. The king took some land in the vicinity of the ant hill and constructed this temple. The lord wanted this shrine famous for his mixed version of Shiva and Vishnu. The 125 feet main pagoda of this temple was raised by Seevalaramapandian in the 12th century. The place is held sacred by Saivites and those Hindus who believe that Shiva and Vishnu are a single deity one in one and accordingly, desire to worship the two gods into one form. The ant hill sand is offered as the divine prasadam here which is believed to have the capacity to cure diseases. The place now comes under the recently formed Tenkasi district, carved out from Tirunelveli.