Sugavaneswarar temple, Salem, Tamil Nadu India

This is one of the five Shiva temples built along the river Manimuthar. These five temple main shiva deities are of suambu. There is a belief that worshiping the 5 temples in a single day will remove all the sins. The temple was built by the Chola king Koprakesari, which is more than 1000 years old. There are about 15 kalvettugal available in the temple. The sthala Puranam claims that temple is a padal petra sthalam by Sundara Nayanar, but that particular song is not known.

The Sthala puranam was told by Nandhi devar to Sanatha munivar, which has 672 songs. Once when Brahma was sitting on the lotus among the Devars, Munis,  Asuras and 4 Vedas in the form of  pasus. Every body appreciated the unique creation power of Brahma. After hearing all these happenings the Muni SUGAR, ( The voice of the muni is similar to that of Parrot’s voice) who is a Lord Shiva devotee, went and told everything to Devi Saraswathi. This muni was born to Muni Vyasar and Thilothamai, who has a Parrot face. When Brahma known this he cursed the Muni Sugar to become a Parrot ( King of Parrot) and the curse will disappear at Salem after worshipping Lord Shiva.

While Muni Suga worshipping Lord Shiva in the form of parrot, a hunter Vachirakanthan killed Suga along with other parrots, who tried to save Lord Shiva statue. The weapon also hits Shiva statue and blood was oozing from the lingam. On seeing this the hunter also killed himself. Lord Shiva appeared and blessed the parrots and the hunter. Muni Sugar also got the original appearance. To show this there is Urchavar and moolavar of Muni Suga with Parrot face is installed in the temple.