The Life
Kotpuli was a commander in the Chola army and a fervent devotee who stored great quantities of rice at his home, dedicating it entirely for Shiva's offerings and for feeding the Lord's devotees. Called away on the king's military service, he charged his family to guard the grain for this sacred purpose. But a famine came, and his kinsmen consumed the consecrated rice to survive. Returning victorious, Kotpuli learned of it and, unable to bear the profaning of what was Shiva's, gathered his relatives and put them to the sword. When a servant begged him to spare a suckling infant, he slew the child too, saying it had drunk milk from a mother who ate the rice. Shiva appeared with Parvati and received him and his kin into His grace. His guru puja falls in Aadi under Kettai.