The Story of Eripaththa Nayanar

Eripaththa Nayanar lived in Karuvoor, a big city in the Chola kingdom. He loved Lord Shiva and always protected Shiva’s devotees.

One day, an old devotee named Shivakamiyandar was carrying fresh flowers to the temple for Lord Shiva. Suddenly, the king’s royal elephant grabbed his basket, threw the flowers, and stepped on them. The old man cried because he could not offer the flowers to God.

Eripaththa saw this. He was very angry that the royal elephant had ruined the offering. To protect the respect of Lord Shiva’s devotee, Eripaththa killed the elephant and the careless guards.

When King Pugazh Chozhar (the 39th Nayanar) heard about this, he came with his army. Instead of punishing Eripaththa, the king felt sorry and asked him to kill him too, as it was his elephant that did wrong.

Eripaththa felt sad for hurting the king’s heart and tried to kill himself instead. The king stopped him. Seeing their pure hearts, Lord Shiva appeared. He brought the elephant and the guards back to life and made the flowers fresh again for Shivakamiyandar.

The king honored Eripaththa by taking him through the town on the royal elephant for everyone to respect him. Later, when Eripaththa died, he became the head of Shiva’s divine army in Kailash.