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India has the reputation of being the home of women praised for their chastity of highest degree.  They willingly and unhesitatingly accompanied their husbands in death.  Tamilnadu celebrates them as their Goddess.  Temples are built for them as the one for Kannagi.  Theepachi Amman in Tirunelveli belongs to this noble community.

Akkammal residing in Ettayapuram was a staunch believer.  After marriage, the couple loved each other heart and soul that they could not live without the other.  While she was working in the field one day, she told the shepherds that she would be receiving a message which they did not take seriously.  Meantime, her relatives arrived at the place and asked her to return home with them without giving any reason.  Akkammal calmly told them that they were urging her to return home as her husband died by then. They were shocked as it was true.  Returning home, she did not cry or weep as ordinary women but stood resolutely to the surprise of kith and kin.  She simply said that she was in her husband by soul and would accompany him in his last journey.  Relatives could not stop her.  Even the ruler of Ettayapuram could not change her mind.

She wanted the cremation of her husband on the banks of Tambiraparani.  She also had a dip in the river and joined the pyre and shed her mortal coil along with her husband.  Lakshmi, a friend of Akkamma since child hood also joined them in death as she could not bear the separation.  Praising Akkammal’s chastity, people built a temple for her then.  As Akkammal sprang into the fire (Thee Paichal in Tamil), she was praised as Thee Paintha Ambal which later changed as Theepachi Amman.