Once the Divine Couple Lord sha~Nkara and pArvatI were strolling through the beautiful gardens of kailAsh. Then the playful Lord suddenly disappeared. He suddenly appeared to pArvatI over a tree. Immediately He shifted to another tree. Soon He took the form of an udumbu (kaudEyam). That udumbu was shining in multi colors like the nine gems of diamond, ruby, saphire, emarald etc. The Supreme Lord, Who robs the hearts of the devotees, charmed the mind of pArvatI. pArvatI out of the Lord created illusion without realising that It is the Lord Himself, went behind that strange splendid animal. When she was running behind It to catch, that also started running; when she stopped, It also stopped. The Goddess did not leave out. She followed It along with her attendents through the mountains and forests. Finally she was tired too much and stopped at a place. The udumbu stopped at the forest of bhadrAdri.

The Goddess's body became red out of the chase she did behind the Animal. She slowly approached the forest to be on the shade of the trees, where she found the Heart stealing udumbu. Without making noise she approached It, like the devotees who seek Him in all humbleness. She touched It, but out of thrill she couldn't hold It. At the instance she touched It, her body became blue like emerald ! The surprised attendents asked her to rest for some time in the forest. As there was no other source of water, Goddess summoned alaka nanda river, which appeared as a pond, in which devi along with her attendents took bath. Hence that pond became known as maragatha sarOvaram.

Afterwards pArvatI slowly appraoche dto catch that udumbu. But that started claimbing the bhadrAdri hill. At the top It claimbed a chambaN^gi tree that was blooming with flowers and started playing on the upper branches.The chasing Goddess along with the attendents stood underneath the tree watching that Animal. That time there was a devotee muni by name mudkalan was performing austerities there. He saw the marvelous udumbu and found lots of divine girls chasing It. Surprised, he loudly called his friend uchchAyanan who was also performing austerities there. Though they were people who controlled the senses and involved in the austerities towards the Lord, at that moment they could not resist a desire to catch that Animal. As they made noice the udumbu disappeared. Irked by their action which made the spledid Thing disappear, gaurI cursed the one who shouted to call the friend to be dumb and the one who responded to be deaf and both to become hunters in the forest.

The two then realised that the girl was in fact the great shakti and begged her pardon. By then pArvatI also realised that she had cursed the devotess of the Lord, Who prefers the heart of the devotees more than shivaloka or kailAsh. Immediately she meditated on the Lord and the Supreme appeared in the form of a symbol of Lord shiva (li~Ngam). devi worshiped the Lord with immense devotion with the flowers available in that forest. The pleased Lord appeared there for all of them to salute and told pArvatI that He only was playing with her as a splendid udumbu. Lord also blessed the two sage devotees cursed by the goddess, that during their term as hunters when they see the splendid udumbu their curse would expire. The goddess asked the Lord why He took the form of udumbu.

Once the deva of justice, who is often disturbed by the asurAs, daemons and others by their bad deeds realised that no body other than the Supreme could provide him a safe refuge. So as directed by a voice in the sky, he came to the place west of the river thenpeNNai (daxiNa pinAkini). There he performed very ardant and determined austerities. The pleased Lord asked what boon he wanted. He reported that he is very often under threat by the disruptive elements. Given that no deva is able to protect him well, he wanted a permanant refuge in the safest place, that is with the Lord. The Lord accepted his pleading and made him a bull which became His vehicle. He also blessed the place of his austerity that the perticular hill would be His most favourite and whoever prays taking bath in the vR^iShabha tIrtam in the vR^iShabha month (vaikAsi) the Lord would be easily pleased. Afterwards in order to bring the goddess also to that place He made the udumbu play, the Lord explained in response to the godess's question.

vyAsar explained the glory of the maragata sarOvaram to maitreyan. jAmbavAn worshiped the Lord here and got rid of his enemy dIrga jihvan. pANdavAs worshiped the God and Goddess at this holy spot. It is said that one gets stability of mind by living in this place worshiping the Lord for various durations.

The history of this temple is told in brahmANda purANam as bhadragiri mahAtmIyam.

Location: State : Tamil Nadu District : krishnagiri (Hosur) Situation: A major town on the way to Bangalore from krishnagiri.