History

This temple for Sri Maha Prathyangira Devi is situated in a small village called Ayyavadi around 6 kms from Kumbakonam. Prathyangira Devi Temple is a Hindu temple located at Ayyavadi in the Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu, India. The temple is dedicated to the goddess Pratyangira, the incarnation of Kali. The temple is more than 1000 years old and is associated with legends of the Mahabharata. The idol of Prathyangira Devi is flanked by those of Lakshmi and Saraswati.
They have been told to worship a Goddess in a place where it is surrounded by grave yard. If they worship the goddess, she will remove all the fears, increase their strength and help attaining the victory. When they were roaming in the jungle they reached the place which they were searching. The land was surrounded by grave yard in all 8 directions. There they saw Goddess Prithyangara Devi in a Suyambu form. They worshipped here and regained their lost glory. As this place was worshipped by pancha pandavas it was initially called as Ivar ( means five men in Tamil) Padi and later changed as Ayyavadi.