Location: Mandapam.
In the awe aspiring landscapes of the Himalayas, with very wide and far stretching valleys, one could witness umpteen number of ashram, yaga salai or fire place to conduct homam (sacrifice to gods through fire as a medium), meditation and penance halls. At all these places one could find sages, yogis performing, fire sacrifice, meditation and reciting vedic chants and making the atmosphere of the Himalayas much more spiritual and holy.
There was once a Shiva devotee called Thidamugan. He had reached the ashram in the Himalayas to learn vedic mantras and hymns. He went to pay respect and seek blessings of the sages and rishis over there and explained his urge and interest to learn Vedas, thereby humbly requested them to teach him as he would like to be their student.
The yogis who saw Thidamugam, addressed him telling “Dear Thidamuga. You belong to lower caste by birth and therefore you cannot learn these Vedic mantras. Go, Go away. If you want to have your wishes fulfilled, you might want to do a lot of good deeds and sacrifices in this birth in order to be born in an upper caste in the next birth, said the yogis and shooed him away.
Despite of Thidamugam humbly requesting him many times, the sages didn’t pay heed to it. Frustrated and humiliated by the behaviour of the yogis Thidamugam said, “ I came here with genuine search and inspiration to learn vedas and shastras, but because of your arrogance you will forget all the sacrifices, nobility, penance, knowledge and you all will become Chandalas.” Laughing at this the yogis thought how this boy’s curse will affect us?
As months and years passed, the sages indeed started to forget their knowledge, ability to do penance, their tejas (aura) and become ignorant by starting to have alcoholic drinks, did theft, indulged in sexual pleasures, started hunting animals for food and thus started to behave like animals instead of being yogis and sages.
Once when Sage Agastya was passing by them, understood their past through his wisdom, gave them back their knowledge, wisdom and guided them to come out of their curse. He asked them to reach (Kandhamadhanam), in Rameshwaram and perform penance on Shiva, through which their curse will be lifted, said Agastya.
Based on the highly valuable suggestion of Sage Agastya, everyone reached (Kandhamadhanam), Rameshwaram and performed extreme penance on Lord Shiva. Through their great penance, Shiva appeared in front of the sages and created a holy well and ask them to take ritual bath in it, after which curses will be lifted.
Finally through the blessings of Lord Shiva, the sages took ritual bath in the holy well and freed from all their curses.
