01Surya in the sanctum
In the other eight temples of the circuit Shiva is the lord of the house and the graha has a chapel of his own. Here Surya Bhagwan stands in the sanctum, holding lotuses, with his consorts Usha and Pratyusha. Facing him on the axis is Guru, shown in worship, and around the courtyard each of the remaining grahas has a small shrine set so that none looks away from the Sun. Pilgrims begin at the Kol Theertha Vinayaka shrine, then go round the nine. The hall before the sanctum also holds Kashi Vishwanathar and Vishalakshi, Nataraja with Sivakami, Vinayaka and Murugan.
02Kulottunga’s temple to the Sun
An inscription on the walls says the temple was raised in the reign of Kulottunga Chola I and calls it Kulottungachola-Marttandalaya, the Marttanda temple of Kulottunga. It is the oldest of the nine as a stone building in its present form; the other eight are Shiva temples whose hymns go back to the Tevaram. Vijayanagara rulers added to the halls and the gopuram. The sthala purana tells that the rishi Kalava, suffering from leprosy, prayed to the nine grahas, who cured him and were cursed by Brahma for acting without leave; they did tapas here and were released by Surya.
The life of this place
- c. 1070–1120The stone temple is built in the reign of Kulottunga Chola I, named Kulottungachola-Marttandalaya in its inscription.
About 2 km from Aduthurai and 15 km from Kumbakonam. Pilgrims doing the nine-temple circuit often start here on a Sunday morning; Ratha Saptami in Thai is the great day.
