Page:Hindu Feasts Fasts and Ceremonies.djvu/86

70 world was destroyed by an overflowing inundation, the pot somehow lost its position and was observed floating on the water. At the end of the deluge, when the waters subsided, the pot rested in a place now called Kumbakonam and at the spot where the temple of Kumbheswara—from whom the town derives its name—is situated. The compound word "Kumbakonam," which is the name of the city, comes from two simple Sanskrit words kumbha meaning an earthen pot and ghona the nostril or neck of it. Thus the name of the city is connected with the pot of Brahma. But to continue the legend:—When at the beginning of the creation of the world after the deluge, the god Siva was wandering over the earth in the disguise of a hunter, he saw this earthen pot, and as he then held a bow in his hand, he aimed, in sportive mood, at the neck of the pot. The pot broke and the holy water in it began to flow out. It found its level in a hollow pit. This is the very same pit that has become now, according to the legend, the sacred tank of Mahamakhasaras at Kumbakonam. When Siva saw the pot break, he made a lingam out of sand and placed it over