Umamaheswarar Temple, Konerirajapuram (Tirunallam)

01A queen’s memorial

Gandaraditya Chola, a devotee who himself wrote a hymn now in the ninth Tirumurai, died young. His widow, Sembiyan Mahadevi, lived on for decades and spent her wealth turning the brick shrines of the Tevaram into stone. At Tirunallam she rebuilt the temple as a memorial to him, and on the sanctum wall she had a panel carved showing Gandaraditya worshipping the linga, with an inscription naming him. It is one of the few portraits of a Chola king that can be named with certainty. Appar and Sambandar had sung the shrine.

02The great Nataraja

The temple keeps a bronze Nataraja of great size, cast in the Chola manner, which pilgrims and scholars alike come to see. The temple’s katha says the sculptor, ordered by the king to finish it by a set day, poured every metal vessel he had into the mould, and when the image came out the Lord stood there in full. Its Chittirai festival runs for fifteen days. The village is quiet, and the temple, with its Chola inscriptions and early sculpture, is one of the best places to see Sembiyan Mahadevi’s work.