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shlokam:
Smeared in red (blood), a full-moon face, with the deer, and the bow to the left (in His hand), in the
right hand an arrow and axe, wearing ga.nga and crescent moon, always worshipped by vishNu
and brahma, burnt the three cities by His smile, to that God of three worlds, the enemy of pura
(purAri), pray.
The earth became the chariot for the Lord, brahma the charioteer, vishNu the arrow, sun and moon
the wheels, the mountain mEru as the bow and the serpent vAsuki as the string in the bow. Thus all
the gods were present in some form in that chariot. But the fire and god of death were in the wheel
instead of the arrow. vinAyaka broke the wheel to put them in the arrow. Finally when everything
was ready dEvAswere proud that only with their help God is going to destroy the tripuras. But Lord
Shiva didn't use any of them. He smiled and in that smile the three purAs were burnt down.
(The rudhrAksha appeared from the three eyes of Lord Shiva during tripurasaMhAra) The thought
of dEvAs that without their help the Lord wont be able to destroy the tripuras proved foolish.
The purpose of destruction by Lord is only for purification. Lord gave life to the three demons.
Though they went wrong they initially were devotees. They repented for their mistake. The Lord
forgave them and gave one of them the great work of fanning Him with chAmaram, and the rest two
as His security in His abode. (mUvAr puraN^kaL eriththa anRu mUvarkku aruL cheydhAn - thiru
nyAna chamban^dhar)
thiru adhikai is the temple associated with the burning of thripurA. Below is a depiction of this in this
temple.