Devalok
Temple legend · 1 telling · South India

The girl with three breasts

Who is in it

Places: Madurai · Texts: Tiruvilaiyadal Puranam

The story, beat by beat

  1. The childless Pandya king Malayadhwaja and queen Kanchanamalai perform a sacrifice for a son.
  2. A girl of three years rises from the fire with three breasts.
  3. A voice says the third will vanish when she meets her husband.
  4. She is raised as a prince, conquers the directions and reaches Kailash.
  5. Facing Shiva she is shy, and the third breast disappears.
  6. Shiva comes to Madurai as Sundareswarar and they are married, with her brother Vishnu giving her away.
  7. She rules Madurai with him; her temple bears her name.

birth queen marriage three breasts

How it is told, place by place

Base telling · Temple tradition

Tiruvilaiyadal Puranam / Meenakshi temple

South India · Madurai, Tamil Nadu Shaiva

Malayadhwaja, king of the Pandyas, wanted a son and held a sacrifice for one. Out of the fire stepped a girl already three years old, and she had three breasts. The king was dismayed and a voice from the air told him to raise her as he would have raised a boy, and that the third breast would go away the day she set eyes on the man she would marry. She was crowned, led the army and beat every king in every direction, and marched at last on Kailash. There the lord of the mountain came out to meet her, and she looked at him and lowered her eyes, and there were two breasts. He followed her back to Madurai as Sundareswarar, the beautiful lord, and they were married with the whole world watching and her brother Vishnu placing her hand in his. She is Meenakshi, the fish-eyed, and the great temple of Madurai is hers first and his second. Every year in the month of Chithirai the city marries them again.

Meenakshi Temple — Wikipedia; Tiruvilaiyadal Puranam — Wikipedia

Sources: Meenakshi Temple — Wikipedia; Tiruvilaiyadal Puranam — Wikipedia

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