हिंदीOn this day
Standing

Sathyamurthi Perumal Temple, Thirumeyyam (Thirumayam)

Under the hill fort of Thirumayam, Vishnu reclines in a cave cut into the living rock, one of the largest such images in the south. Beside it, in the same hill, is a cave of Mahadev.

Built: Rock-cut cave temple of the 9th century (c. 860s CE per M. A. Dhaky), with later structural shrines; ASI-protectedWhere: Tamil Nadu (Pudukkottai district)Deity: Sathyagirinathar (Sathyamurthi) standing, and Thirumeyyar reclining in the rock; Thayar Ujjivana Nachiyar10.25° N, 78.75° E
  1. Alvar period
  2. c. 860s CE
  3. 17th century
Photo: Ssriram mt · CC BY-SA 3.0

01The rock and the sage

The temple’s katha says the sage Satya did tapas here, and Vishnu turned the river into a tank, the rock into the Meyyam hill and a banyan into a sacred fig so the sage need not move. Adishesha, wishing to leave tamas behind, did penance here and saw the Lord as Hayagriva; Chandra saw him as Vamana. In the cave the Lord lies on the serpent with the devas, Garuda and the asuras Madhu and Kaitabha carved round him on the rock face; in the structural shrine Sathyamurthi stands.

02Ninth-century stone

The cave is generally placed in the 9th century; M. A. Dhaky dated it to about the 860s and compared its figures with the Vijayalaya Choleeswaram at Narthamalai, built in the same region and period. Thirumangai Alvar sang Thirumeyyam, nine pasurams in the usual count. The temple is an ASI-protected monument and still in worship, under the fort raised in the 17th century by the Sethupathi of Ramnad. The car festival is in Vaikasi, with Krishna Jayanti in Avani and Adi Puram in Adi.

The life of this place

  1. Alvar periodThirumangai Alvar sings Thirumeyyam.
  2. c. 860s CEThe reclining Vishnu cave is cut, by M. A. Dhaky’s dating.
  3. 17th centuryThe Sethupathi of Ramnad builds the fort on the hill above the temple.
Visiting

Thirumayam is on the Pudukkottai–Karaikudi road, about 20 km south of Pudukkottai. Climb to the fort for the view.

Nearby

Tiruppathur (Sivaganga)Standing
Company rule and the war of 1857

Tiruppathur (Sivaganga)

The town where the Marudhu brothers, Periya and Chinna Marudhu, were hanged by the Company on 24 October 1801 with their kin and followers. Its old Shiva temple was sung in the Tevaram.

Sowmya Narayana Perumal Temple, ThirukoshtiyurStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Sowmya Narayana Perumal Temple, Thirukoshtiyur

From the tower of this temple Ramanuja called out the eight-syllable mantra, Om Namo Narayanaya, to everyone in the street, after his guru had made him come eighteen times to learn it.

Kodunkundreeswarar Temple, PiranmalaiStanding
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Kodunkundreeswarar Temple, Piranmalai

Kodunkundram, the steep hill of the Tevaram, once the Parambu hill of the generous chief Pari. Shiva is worshipped here at three levels of the rock.

Avudaiyarkoil (Tiruperunturai), Atmanathaswamy TempleStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Avudaiyarkoil (Tiruperunturai), Atmanathaswamy Temple

The temple raised at Tiruperunturai where Manikkavacakar met Bhagwan Shiva as a guru under a kurundam tree and spent the Pandya king’s horse money on it. In the sanctum there is only a pedestal: Shiva is worshipped here as the formless Self.