Thiruchuzhi Thirumeninathar * Who diverted the Deluge ~
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Tiruchuli — The birth place of a modern saint and a 7th century temple
In the ancient township of Tiruchulli in a dry, dusty corner of South India, legend speaks of Lord Shiva saving the land from a deluge on three separate occasions. By planting his trident into the earth, Shiva created a hole for the water to flow into. Since Shiva swirled floods here, the place came to be known as Tiruchuli (Chuli Tamil means swirl). At the place where he planted his trident stands the large temple of Bhuminatheswara (Lord of the Earth), also called Thirumeninathar temple or Tiruchuli temple, dedicated to Lord Shiva.
Just across the street from this old temple is the house — Sundara Mandiram — where young Venkataraman — who later came to be known to the world as Ramana Maharshi— was born in December 1879.
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Selvaganapathy S. said:
"Thiruchuzhiyal" - This had been it's original name at the beginning. In course of time, it had been colloquially spelled as 'Thiruchuzhi'.
Out of thousands of thousand Shiva temples, only there could have been 1008 temples to be notified as important. Even from that classification, there are 274 isthalas (temples) called as 'Padal petra isthalangal', which means those places had been sung by any one of the 'Samaya Kuravar Nalvar, namely Appar, Sundarar, Gnana Sambanthar and Manicka vasagar. Out of those 274 Padal petra isthalangals, there have been 14 situated in Pandyan Dynasty. Among the 14 isthalangals, Thiruchuzhiyal has been placed as the 10th isthala.
14 - Padal petra Isthalangal in Pandyan Dynasty ~ " Koodal punalvayil Kutralam Apanur Yedagam Nelveli Ramesham - Aadanai Thenparankundram Chuzhi(yal) Thenkanaper puthur Vankodunkundram Puvanam ".
It's been located within the reach of 14 Km to the east of Aruppukottai at Viruthunagar district and 50 Km away from the south of Madurai district and 31 Km from the railway station of Viruthunagar.
In it's isthala purana (temple history), this is said to have been witnessing the 'Sathur Yuga', that means the four mega division of Earth's life span.Those Yugas are 1. Gretha Yuga/ 2. Theretha Yuga/ 3. Thwapara Yuga/ 4. Kali Yuga. Now, we are living in Kali Yuga. In Gretha Yuga, goddess Boodevi had worshiped here. In Theretha Yuga, the holy play of 'Piralayam chuzhitha leelai' (divert Deluge). In Thwapara Yuga, Sage Gowthama and his wife both redeemed and had seen the wedding posture and the 'dance of Ecstacy' of lord Shiva with His consort. In kali Yuga, the poets belonged to the last Tamil sangam had worshiped here, in this isthala.
Manickavasagar, one of the 'Samaya kuravar Nalvars' had also worshiped this isthala, during third century. Likewise,Gnanasambanthar also had visited this isthala during 7th century, when he visited Madurai for having defeated the Jain saints in the contest of 'Punal vatham' (flood test), in which he proved the glory of 'Saivam' and made the king of Madurai 'Koon Pandiyan' (hump on his back) from the religion Samanam to 'Saivam', that is follower of lord Shiva.Then he accompanied with his fathar 'Sivapatha Iruthayar', Madurai king 'Nindra seer Nedumaran', queen 'Mangayarkarasi', minister 'Kulasiraiyar', 'Thiru Neelakanda Yaalpanar' and 16000 disciples, had worshiped in this temple.
After the arrival of Gnanasambanthar, Thirunavukkarasar, who was also one of the 'Samaya Kuravars' had come here and praised lord Shiva in his 'Thiruthandagam'. On 9th century, 'Sundarar', also one among the Samaya-Kuravars, came here with his dear most friend, the king Cheran Perumanayanar. He praised lord 'Thiru meni nathar' in his part of the compilation of Thevaram. Kumara Gurubarar, one who lived in the era of king Thirumalai nayak had worshiped this lord in his poetry work of 'Meenakshi Ammai kuram'. He was said to be supposed to sing the 'Thunai Malaiammai Pillai Tamil. Before the inception of every Yuga, it had been a custom that near the theppam 'Kavai Kadal' there would have been the growth of any one of the trees like 'Naval', 'Mango', 'Maghzhl' and Pepal trees.Whenever that tree grew, there also would have been the appearance of lord Vinayagar under that tree for every Yuga. So He has been called as 'Thavara Vinayagar', means lord Vinayagar under that tree. Even now, at this Kaliyuga, we could able to see lord 'Thavara Vinayagar' sit under the Pepal tree majestically near the holy tank 'Kavai kadal', at the entrance.
A rare surprise would have awaited us in the inner corridor of this temple, that even on those days, our people were having the awareness of water harvesting, that is the importance of future-storage of water. For that, they had sculptured one water outlet, made up of hallow-stone and had installed it at the inner corridor, beside the wall. The rain water gathered on the roof is coming through this 'stoned-pipe' and filled in the storage tank.
This temple's history has seen in one of the 18Puranas, named as 'Maha Kantha Purana', in it's 'Shethra Kaandam'. It has been translated and then presented to us, in Tamil, by the great devotee 'Aravamutha Sariyar'.”