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Story behind the City name “TIRUNELVELI”: There is a story behind the name of the town “ TIRUNELVELI ”. Once there was a Brahmin in this town named Veda Sharma who was a great Shiva Bhakta. Every day he used to go out and collect the rice or paddy from the people and then offering to the Lord Shiva. One day, when the brahmin was drying the paddy which he had collected for offering to Lord Shiva, it rained suddenly and Veda Sharma feared that all the paddy might be washed away due to heavy rain. He became much distressed and prayed for help to the Lord Shiva who took pity on him and protected the paddy from the rain by covering it and standing around it like a fence.  So this place came to be known as Tiru Nel  Veli (In Tamil ‘Tiru’ - means Beautiful, ‘Nel’ - means paddy and ‘Veli’ - means fence). The Lord is also came to be known as “ NELLAIYAPPAR” . According to another legend associated with this temple, Lord Shiva once took the form of a Lingam, came to Tirunelveli and took his