The sage Mrikandu and his wife had no child, and when Shiva at last offered one he offered a choice: a boy of great virtue who would live sixteen years, or a dull and wicked one who would live long. The sage took the short life. Markandeya was everything promised, and when his parents wept on his sixteenth birthday and he learned why, he did the one thing he knew: he sat before the linga and worshipped. Yama's messengers could not approach him; Yama came himself on his buffalo and threw the noose. The boy flung his arms round the linga, and the noose closed on god and boy together. The stone split and Shiva came out with his foot on the god of death, and Yama fell. The worlds stopped, for without death nothing could move; the gods begged, and Shiva gave Yama back his life, but the noose was to stay off Markandeya, who is sixteen to this day. From that hour Shiva is Kalantaka, the ender of time.
South India · Thirukkadaiyur, Thiruvanmiyur (Tamil Nadu); Triprangode (Kerala); Parli (Maharashtra); Khandya (Karnataka); Varanasi; Yamunotri routeShaiva
Temples across the country claim the spot where the linga split: Thirukkadaiyur and Thiruvanmiyur in Tamil Nadu, Triprangode in Kerala, Parli Vaijnath in Maharashtra, Khandya in Karnataka, the Markandeya Mahadeva at Varanasi and a tirtha on the road to Yamunotri. Thirukkadaiyur has become the place where couples mark long life, a custom the research could not verify against a source.
What is different here:
Same plot localised to seven or more shrines; the Tamil site attaches a longevity rite.