Repentant at what he has done, Urnanabha prayed to Lord Brahma for his mercy. A pacified Lord Brahma indicated that Urnanabha would be freed from his curse when he, as a spider, served Lord Siva in the Bilwaka grove in Dakshin Kailash. Urnanabha thus began his life as a spider in the Bilwaka grove yearning for Lord Siva’s grace. One day, a devotee of Lord Siva was plucking leaves into a basket, for worship, from the tree where the spider was living. He went in to the river Suvarnamukhi to purify himself keeping the basket on the banks. When he came back to pick his basket of leaves, drops of water from his body fell on the leaf on which the spider was hiding. Immediately, he was reminded of the events in his previous birth that led to his present state. As the devotee was uttering each of the thousand names of Lord Siva and offering a leaf, the leaf behind which the spider was hiding, fell on the linga, and the spider came into contact with the linga. The spider there upon climbed up a nearby tree.

As if the sculptor in Urnanabha, born as a spider, manifested again, the web was built to shield the linga from sun’s rays. The spider stayed in the web, close to the Lord, and considered it its fortune to serve the Lord in such a manner. While the spider was thus serving the Lord, an incident took place as if to test the spider’s devotion. The flame from one of the lamps close to the Linga, started rising. In his concern to protect the Lord, the spider, simpleton that he was, rushed down towards the flame. The Lord, pleased with the total devotion shown by the spider, appeared in front of the spider and asked him to seek a boon. Overwhelmed, the spider said that he desired to be liberated. The Lord granted his request, and as the legend goes, said to the spider, “As you have served me here as a spider-devotee, the name of this temple shall have ‘Sri’ as a suffix from now on”. Even today, the web-like form seen close to the base of the linga is believed to be an image of what the spider-devotee had weaved.