Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c4.92

c4.92

17) *How the slant of the earth was rectified by seating Agastya*. The matrimonial ceremony of Śrī Parameśvara and Pārvatī was held in the Himālayas. On that auspicious occasion all the living beings of the world were present, and as a result the Himālayan region sank down and the earth slanted to that side. To keep the equilibrium of the earth, Śiva sent Agastya to the south. Accordingly Agastya reached Kuttālam, where there was a temple dedicated to the worship of Viṣṇu. Agastya had besmeared his forehead with ashes and so admission to the temple was denied to him, by the devotees there who were Vaiṣṇavites. By his own power Agastya turned himself into a vaiṣṇavite and got into the temple, and immediately the image of Viṣṇu in the temple changed by itself into a Śivaliṅga (idol representing Śiva). Since then the temple at Kuttālam has remained a temple of Śiva. Agastya proceeded to the southernmost point of the earth and sat there and because of his weight the earth regained its normal position. (Skanda Purāṇa).