Knitting hamlets together with shared legends

South Indian region is fairly crowded with temples , big and small, Tamil Nadu  being especially rich in such built heritage - almost one temple cropping up every two or three kilometers as one traverses its roads. 

 Each settlement  preserves its oral traditions about its origin as a shared memory ; often a defining  episode of  some local significance .

 Sthala Puranas , though primarily of Puranic content , borrow lots of elements from  such local traditions too. Hence each local purana is unique though the over all template can be common with many others . 

For instance , the most famous template is the story of  The Cow voluntarily letting out  her milk over a mound that eventually reveals a hidden lingam . Who the cow belonged to, how the ablution was discovered and who raised the temple over the found lingam are variables unique to each different place. 

Another common motif in Sthala Puranas , is The Dream , in which Gods reveal themselves and ask for a temple to be raised . The dream could occur to a person who ,  having 'sinned' in someway, is looking for suitable expiation or to one who is longing for an offspring / any other wish. A famous Deity from a famous temple situated far away may also manifest in a Dream to say (S)He shall reside as a proxy in the dreamer's village .

The Ramayana and The Mahabharatha have innumerable itinerant characters . Any one of them can easily be co-opted into any sthala purana , by having them visit that place either on their way to some other destination or as having performed a miracle there or having married locally or bestowing some special boon to a local etc etc . These cannot be disrespected as mere overimaginative yarns spun by bards. They serve a purpose. They help in keeping episodes of the Epics in memory, assimilating the essence of those epics into their own local life systems , finding kinship with other habitations that have traditions involving the same puranic characters and fostering pride in their local temple. 

Temple rituals are designed to honour such traditions . Hamlets lying in close proximity often have a ritualistic connect with each other , especially during the seasonal Utsavams when processional icons, representing the presiding deities, are taken on Veedi-Ula  outings Those of the smaller hamlets are taken on 'Visits' to the  biggest temple of the cluster sharing in its Sthala Puranam. It is not about the Deities sharing a bond , but the entire communities. 

Such clustering , whether of organic development or of purely imaginative construct, happen both at the major scale and on a more modest scale. The major clusters sharing kinship are very well known and well promoted ( especially by tour agents these days !) Examples are

The 12 Jyotirlingas , spread across the entire country. The Char-Dham circuit .  

In Tamil Nadu : The Navagraha Circuit, which are all Shiva temples with one of the planetary deities having had some episode of significance in each . The Saptavitanga Set share a common story of origin. The Nava Tirupathis are all proxies for the original Tirupathi. The biggest groups are the 108 DivyaDesams of Vishnu or sthalas sanctified with Divyaprabandam hymns sung by the Alwars and  the 276 Padal Petra Sthalangal of Shiva , sanctified with Tevaram hymns by the four foremost Nayanars. Murugan's  six Padaiveedus form a Set. 

Came across some minor Clusters which share Sthala puranas, but not promoted as Tour Routes yet, during a recent trip to Vellore. 

The Virinjipuram Margabandeeswarar Temple , a very beautiful shrine built during Vijayanagara times borrows the legend of Arunachala to construct its sthala puranam . It lies not very far from Tiruvannamalai Arunachaleshwara temple and has attached itself to its sthala puranam.  The legend relates that after  lying about having found the top of the infinite Primordial Coloumn of Fire , Brahma pays for it by losing one head , his right to receive worship and is sentenced to do penance for eons . He gains atonement finally with a  dip in Shiva's  sacred tank at .....Virinjipuram ! So , the jigsaw pieces of two different temples fit neatly into a single , larger picture. 

The name Marga Bandhu might have alluded to the protection this Shiva promised to travelers on a major trade route that passed through this region in historic times , but is now given out to mean that Shiva is our guide to reach our spiritual destination. 

(Historically, Virinjipuram is the birthplace of Sri Appayya Deekshitar , a renowned Vedic scholar. )

Tiruvalam also has a lovely Temple to Bilvanatheshwarar , built during Chola reign . The temple finds mention in Tevaram hymn of Tirugnanasambandar and has a hymn dedicated to the Murugan here by Arunagirinathar . The Sthalapuranam borrows the story of the circumambulating competition between Ganesha and Murugan to get the miraculous fruit brought by Narada to justify the place name Tiru-Valam (= going around ) . While the fact could merely be the bend ( also Valam) that the river takes at this place . And to explain the three Nandis in the three prakarams facing away from The Lord , is the story of a certain demon, Tanjan ,  who pestered the people . The Nandis, apparently,  turned to face outward, in order to guard against any more dangers invading the town. Tanjan  was killed by Shiva of course and cut up into pieces . Now , a few nearby hamlets have been brought into this story as places where  certain body parts of the demon fell , the place-names reflecting the  body-parts !: Like, Lalatapuram,( lalata:forehead) Shikararajapuram (Shika: top of skull) etc However contrived the stories , the shrines of those hamlets remain in a close relationship with this temple , the cluster reveling in a sense of botherhood . 

Remembering here, the legend of Goddess Meenakshi's wedding in Madurai and Kallazhagar coming from Azhagarmalai as wedding guest . There are more examples of deities visiting each other  in different towns during festivals.

People need stories . Stories keep us grounded and related to each other in different ways . A place may derive its name /names from many different sources , can change during down the years , can get corrupted and morph in sound . But people are adept at finding some connection to something and create a story for it. Believing in these stories or not is a personal choice.

 But there is no denying the charm stories lend to a place and the networks they help to build.