Once there was a spider which was a great devotee of Lord Shiva, which expressed its devotion by spinning webs in the shape of temple and Mantapams to Lord Siva, Ganesh, Kumaraswamy (Kartik) and Nandi.

The morning dew drops would make the cobwebs look like pearl houses and sunrays on the dew drops would make them shine like rubies. But all this would break and crumble with the blowing of the wind. The spider would connect the broken threads and weave the web all over again.

One day Siva, to test the spider's devotion, burned all the spider webs with the lamp that was shining near His shrine. The enraged spider swallowed the flame and sacrificed its life. Siva, pleased with its unswerving devotion, offered it a boon. And what did the spider ask the God ? To free it from further births!

Siva merged it into Himself. One can still see the spider on the Linga!

Legend of the serpent (kala) and the elephant (hasti)

Once there was a serpent which used to worship the Siva Linga with precious gems. An elephant, also a devotee of Lord Siva, used to bathe in the nearby Swarnamukhi river, push away all the precious gems and worship the linga with leaves and flowers from the forest.

The next day the snake, finding her precious offerings pushed away, gets enraged. It would push away the leaves and flowers and worship the Linga with the precious gems it brought from underground.

Next day the elephant would push away the gems and worship it with leaves and flowers. This continued for a while. One day the snake got upset and kept a watch hiding under the leaves all night, waiting to catch the mischief maker.

The elephant also lost its temper finding her offerings pushed away day after day. One day it came early and was pleased to find the flowers left undistrubted. It went and took bath in the river and brought fresh flowers and leaves for pooja (worship). While the elephant was clearing the previous day's leaves and flowers, the snake got into the elephant's head through its trunk, causing unbearable pain to the elephant. The elephant ran helter-skelter with pain and banged its head to a mountain. His head split and the elephant died. The snake was crushed to death too. Lord Siva took them into his fold.

That is how all the three creatures, accursed to be born on earth, can be seen on the linga at Srikalahasti.