Around the town of Kumbakonam in the Kaveri delta lie nine temples, each linked to one of the Navagraha — the nine celestial powers that tradition holds to shape the courses of life: the Sun and Moon, the five planets, and the two lunar nodes Rahu and Ketu. In all but one the presiding deity is Shiva, with the graha honoured in a shrine of its own; at Suryanar Kovil it is the Sun who is the central deity, attended by all nine. Tradition tells that the nine were once cursed and afflicted, and that praying to Shiva they were granted these places as their abodes, from which they would grace the devotees who came to them — a story recalled in the healing of Sage Kalava, cured of his afflictions by the grace of the Navagraha.
Devotees come to each shrine to seek ease from the influence a particular graha is said to cast — lighting sesame-oil lamps to Shani at Thirunallar, making offerings to Rahu at Thirunageswaram — and to bring the celestial forces of a life into balance. To make the round of the nine is to place one's own course, and its turning stars, within the care of Shiva.
