Shiva is worshipped as Thayumanavar, and is represented by the lingam and his consort Parvati is depicted as Mattuvar Kuzhalammai.

According to Hindu legend, a pregnant woman named Rathnavathi was an ardent devotee of Shiva and he arrived in the form of her mother to attend to her delivery.

The temple is maintained and administered by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department of the Government of Tamil Nadu.

The three-headed demon Trishira, who meditated on Thayumanavar near the present-day city to obtain favours from the god.

[12] The temple is maintained and administered by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department of the Government of Tamil Nadu.

The walls around the central shrine house the image of Dakshinamurthy, Somaskandar, Natarajar, Surya, Brahma, and Durga.

Like other Shiva temples of Tamil Nadu, the priests belong to the Shaivaite community, a Brahmin sub-caste.

The temple rituals are performed six times a day; Ushathkalam at 5:30 a.m., Kalasanthi at 8:00 a.m., Uchikalam at 10:00 a.m., Sayarakshai at 6:00 p.m., Irandamkalam at 8:00 p.m. and Ardha Jamam at 10:00 p.m. Each ritual comprises four steps: abhisheka (sacred bath), alangaram (decoration), neivethanam (food offering) and deepa aradanai (waving of lamps) for both Thayumanaswami and Mattuvar Kuzhal Amman.

A huge lamp is lit in a cauldron, containing three tons of ghee, at the top of the Malaikottai hills during the Deepam.

[19] Every full moon, tens of thousands of pilgrims worship Thayumanaswami by circumambulating the Tiruchirappalli hill barefoot.

On the day of yearly Chitra Pournami, the full moon of the Tamil calendar, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims come from across the world to worship Thayumanaswami.

[17] Tirugnana Sambandar, a 7th-century Tamil Saivite poet, venerated Thayumanavar in eleven verses in Tevaram, compiled as the First Tirumurai.

[24][25] There is a mutt named after the saint in the South Street of Rockfort, which celebrates his annual birth anniversary.