"The Kapaleeshvara temple complex is another important temple, devoted to Shiva. .... Legend has it that Parvati, Shiva’s wife, once incarnated as a peahen and worshiped Lord Shiva here to obtain deliverance. Actually the story is that Shiva was once imparting knowledge to Parvati, but she became distracted by a beautiful peacock and was not listening to her husband. Thus, Shiva cursed her to become a peahen to experience that life, but told her by worshiping him in the form of a Shiva lingam under a Punnai tree, he would again join her. After years of searching, the peahen finally found such a lingam in this area known as Mylapore."