The mountain · The temple of earth

Ekambareswarar, Kanchipuram: the temple of earth

The temple of earth among the five elements ~ the vast, ancient Ekambareswarar temple at Kanchipuram, where Shiva is a lingam of sand that the Goddess embraced to save from a flood, beneath a mango tree thousands of years old.

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Among the five element-temples, the temple of earth stands at Kanchipuram ~ the Ekambareswarar temple, one of the largest and most ancient temples in all of Tamil Nadu, in a city so sacred it is counted among the seven holiest cities of India. Here Shiva is worshipped as the element of earth (prithvi), in a lingam of sand ~ and the story of how that came to be is one of the tenderest in the whole tradition, a story of the Goddess herself embracing the Lord to save him from destruction.

Shiva as earth

At Ekambareswarar, Shiva is the Prithvi Lingam ~ the lingam of earth. The tradition tells that the Goddess Parvati, doing penance here to be united with Shiva, fashioned a lingam out of the sand of the river Vegavathi with her own hands, and worshipped it. To test her devotion, Shiva sent the river down in a sudden flood to sweep the sand-lingam away ~ and Parvati, rather than flee, embraced the lingam with her whole body, shielding it from the waters, willing to be swept away herself rather than let the Lord she had made be destroyed. Moved by this absolute love, Shiva stayed the flood and appeared to her, and they were united. The sand-lingam of that story is the presiding deity to this day, and because it is of earth (sand), abhishekam is not poured directly over it ~ a telling mark of the element it embodies.

Rather than flee the flood, the Goddess embraced the sand-lingam with her whole body ~ willing to be swept away herself rather than let the Lord be destroyed.

The great temple and the mango tree

The name Ekambareswarar is said to derive from Eka-amra-nathar ~ “the Lord of the one mango tree.” The temple holds a famous ancient mango tree, held by tradition to be thousands of years old, under which Parvati is said to have done her penance and worshipped ~ its four branches, the tradition says, yielding four different kinds of mango and representing the four Vedas. The temple itself is vast ~ one of the largest in Tamil Nadu, spread over many acres, with a towering gopuram and a great thousand-pillared hall, expanded across the centuries by the Pallavas, Cholas and the Vijayanagara kings. Kanchipuram, its city, is one of the seven moksha-puris, the seven cities that grant liberation, and a great centre of both Shaiva and Vaishnava devotion and of silk-weaving.

Earth and fire

For the pilgrim of Arunachala, Ekambareswarar is the temple of the element that, with fire, makes the most tangible pair of the five: earth and fire, the solid ground and the transforming flame. Where Arunachala is the fire-hill you walk around, Ekambareswarar is the earth-lingam of sand that the Goddess embraced ~ both of them the grosser, more physical elements, both worshipped as something you can stand before and touch the ground of. Kanchipuram lies about 110 km from Tiruvannamalai, a comfortable day-trip for those wishing to add the temple of earth to their pilgrimage of the elements. See the five element temples for the whole scheme.

Last updated 19 February 2026. Following the documented record preserved by Sri Ramanasramam and his devotees; where an account is traditional, it is told as such.