Five temples of Shiva in the south embody the five great elements from which all things are made — earth, water, fire, air, and space. At each, the lingam is worshipped as one element made present: at Kanchipuram, Ekambareswarar as earth; at Thiruvanaikaval near Trichy, Jambukeswarar as water, his sanctum kept ever moist by a hidden spring; at Thiruvannamalai, Arunachaleswarar as fire, where tradition tells Shiva rose as a column of flame that Brahma and Vishnu could not measure; at Srikalahasti, as air, where the innermost lamp is seen to flicker though no wind stirs; and at Chidambaram, Nataraja as space, worshipped in a formless emptiness at the heart of the shrine.
The four in the Tamil country are sung in the Tevaram, the hymns of the Nayanar saint-poets, and honoured as Paadal Petra Sthalams — shrines graced by that song. To move among the five is to trace the elements inward, from the solid ground beneath the feet to the open sky within, and to see in each the one presence that pervades them all. Tradition holds the shrines to stand in a striking alignment across the land, as though the elements themselves were set in order upon the earth.
