Irumbai Maakaalam is a quaint village enroute Tindivanam ( in Tamilnadu ) from Pondicherry and the village houses an ancien temple of Lord Shiva by name Mahakaleshwar ( or Maakaleshwar ) . The deity with the same name is in Ujjain in the North of India and in another temple near Kumbakonam also . This temple structure at Irumbai is said to have been built a thousand years ago by a Chola King , though the deity should have been existing from much earlier as it is a place mentioned in the songs of Sri Tirugnanasambandar , Sundarar and Pattinathar . It is listed as the 32nd of the temples ( Padal Petra Sthalam ) identified where the Nayanmars have visited and sang hymns . This is a story of a Siddha associated with this temple which I am going to narrate here . About five hundred to six hundred years ago , there lived a Siddha in this area , now known to us as Kaduveli Siddhar . Siddhars are Tamil saints or mystics who were devoted to Lord Shiva .
Siddhars are Tamil saints or mystics who were devoted to Lord Shiva . They were well versed in advanced yogic practices and most of them knew the art of preserving their bodies for hundreds of years and thus lived long lives . The ” Siddha ” system of medicine is based on the formulations of herbs as written in the ancient texts by the Siddhars . Now , this Siddha in our story was doing intense penance under a peepul tree near this temple of Lord Shiva known as Maakaleshwar . His tapasya or meditation was so very intense that he was generating lot of heat from his body and the whole area surrounding the temple and the villages had become very dry with lakes drying up and there was no rain . The King who was ruling from a neighbouring place called Edayanchavadi was also worried since the threat of a famine loomed large.
The villagers could sense that the lack of rain was due to the intense meditation of the Siddha but they were afraid of waking him up from his meditation , fearing that he might curse him if awoken rudely . This news reached the King and he announced a reward for anyone who could successfully wake up the Siddha from his meditation . There was a temple dancer in the village by name Valli and she also heard this announcement . ” Well , let me try ” thought she . She started observing the Siddha day and night . He was sitting in padmasan ( lotus pose ) with his eyes closed all the time and was remaining so still hat an anthill had started growing by his sides . She noted that occasionally he held out his palm , with eyes still closed and waited till a dry peepul leaf fell on his palm and when the leaf fell , he put it into his mouth and ate it , all the time his eyes closed . His only food was the occasional dry peepul leaf .
