Sanneswara Bhagawan Temple

The Markandeya purana vividly describes the birth of Saturn. Samja, the wife of the Sun could not bear the intense heat of her husband. She created a duplicate of her form called Chaya, left her in the house and went away to her parents. The Sun not aware of this plot lived with Chaya, thinking her to be his wife, she begot a son to Sun and he is Saturn.

Scientifically, he is next only to Jupiter in size and revolves round the Sun as other planets. It is about 75 crores of miles from the earth and revolves round itself in 10 1/4 hours. Its motion is very slow. Saturn is called Sanisvara. Sani means slow moving. In legends too, he is described as a lame person. The Sun begot Yama through his first wife Samja. In quarrel between Yama and Sani, the latter suffered an injury resulting in this deformity.

Silpa Ratnakara, describes Sani as black hued, having eagle as his mount, wields sula, wearing blue garments, blue flowers and ornaments. In the south, the crow is represented as his vehicle. Nala was seized by Saturn and he had to undergo several troubles on that account. Finally he bathed in Nala Tirtham, a sacred pond in Tanjore District near Karaikkal and got rid of the seizure.

Today a big temple adorns the spot with the Nala Tirtham by its side. There are two separate sanctums, one for Darbavanyesvara and the other for Saturn. The main deity is a Vidangan. i.e. not chiselled. It is a natural rock, and is known as Maragatha Lingam. At the time of the transit of Saturn in Rasis, devotees throng in lakhs to have a dip in Nala Tirtham and worship Sani. Small lamps of clay are filled with gingelly oil and lit. Thousands of such lamps are lit in the corridor and from far it looks like a bonfire. The legends declare that Sani is propitiated by offering gingelly oil, icon and cakes made of sesame grains.