Devotees visiting Lord Kumbeswarar temple do not fail and they should not fail to visit Lord Karumbayiram Pillayar who makes their life as sweet as sugarcane, as the very name suggests.  Sugarcane in English means Karumbu in Tamil.

Devotees place all their prayers at the feet of Lord Karumbayiram Pillayar.

A trader was travelling through this place with a cart load of sugarcane.  While passing through the border of this place, he was tired, parked his cart near the temple tank, washed his face and continued the journey.  A little boy asked for a piece of sugarcane.  The cart man refused and continued the journey.  The boy chased demanding a piece.  Some people advised the man to give the boy a piece and that he won’t lose any thing.  The boy also looked fat as a Pillayar, they said.

The trader simply said that the sugarcane he was carrying was something as a grass stick and it would not be sweet but salty.  He also said that unless it is crushed in the mill, it would not be sweet.   The boy said that he was lying and they would become simply grass sticks and disappeared.

The trader reached the mill and asked for crushing.  The mill man laughed at him and said that grass sticks are not crushed.  The trader realized his folly.  Returning home, the trader fell asleep.  The boy appeared in his dream and said that he was rewarded for speaking a lie.  The trader understood that the boy was but Lord Vinayaka, went to the temple and begged Lord’s pardon.   Merciful Lord changed the grass sticks into sugarcanes.  Since then He is praised as Karumbayiram Pillayar – Karumbu in Tamil means sugarcane.  Though an old temple, all pujas are performed as per Agama rules.

Yugas back, a demon bundled the earth and took it to the Padala Loka, the world under the earth.  Responding to the prayer of Mother Earth, Lord Vishnu in His Varaha Avatar – taking the form of a wild pig – prayed to Lord Vinayaka in this place, and brought the Earth back.  Hence, this place, Kumbakonam was called Varahapuri in olden days.  As Pillayar helped Lord Vishnu then, He was praised as Varaha Pillyar.  Later, due to the Karumbu-Sugarcane incident that happened about 1000 years, He had now come to be known as Karmbayiram Pillayar – Vinayaka.