Pallikondeeswarar temple,suruttapalli pic 11--15

Once Indra lost his kingdom and found that only if he consumed the Divine Nectar he could rule. So there was a tug of war between the devas and asuras to obtain this nectar. As they were churning the ocean, before the nectar came the poison. So there was complete pandemonium. Lord Siva then swallowed the poison and came to be called Nilakandan. A stunned Parvathi quickly stopped the poison at the throat. Siva then became drowsy and selected Surutapalli, where he is seen sleeping on the lap of Parvathi.
Narada, meanwhile, passed on the message and down came the Devas, Brahma, Vishnu and the Saptarishis, to have darshan. They were promptly stopped by Nandi who asked them all to come after some time, as Shiva was resting. All of them waited. Siva, when he woke up, was filled with extreme happiness and danced ("Ananda Thandavam"). This day, when the Devas, Brahma, Vishnu, Narada and Saptarishis had Siva darshan was a Krishnapaksha Trayodasi (Stiravaram, Saturday). This is the Mahapradosham day. Pradhosham, generally, is a significant occasion observed with great piety at all Siva temples. This temple was one of the favourites of the Paramacharya, who stayed here for 10 days, and in whose memory a Dhyana Manadapam is to be constructed. Pallikondeswarar's Sannidhi is seen in Kasi (Hanuman Ghat) and the Sage of Kanchi wished that devotees visiting Kasi would follow Pallikondeswarar to Surutapalli.