Cheranmahadevi Milagu Pillayar Pepper Ganapathy Temple

There is a quite interesting history associated with this Cheranmahadevi Milagu Pillayar Pepper Ganapathy Temple-Cheranmahadevi, Tirunelveli, in Tamil nadu. There was a king who was suffering with a very different disease and this disease did not have any treatment or cure. But one day he heard a voice when he was sleeping and that voice advised him to make a big doll of his size and full it with pearls and donate it to a Brahmin. Next day king did as per the voice he heard when he was sleeping and made and doll but there was no Brahmin ready to accept it. One young Brahmin from Karnataka heard about this and came to accept this doll. He accepted it and when he was leaving the doll became alive and demanded the half share of benefits of Gayatri mantra that the Brahmin chanted all his life. But he disagreed but he felt bad for what he did later and decided to use the wealth for a very good cause. He started thinking about what project to do with this wealth but could not come to any conclusion. So he thought of visiting Sage Agastya for suggestion and he handed over the doll to another Brahmin whom he trusted and left. On the way he had to face many obstacles created by sage Agastya but this young Brahmin faced all and reach the sage. The sage advised him to build a canal as creating water is the best deeds among all. He showed him a cow and asked to follow the cow and gave him some instructions to follow while following the Cow. After building the canal, young Brahmin thought that what would happen if there are no monsoons and that really happened for three years. To clear this problem, he installed Milagu Pillayar Vinayagar idol and grounded pepper on him and left that idol in the pound. Immediately dark clouds started forming and it started raining. This ritual is followed still today in this place and the small pound is very huge which looks almost like a sea.