Aiyarappar Temple

The temple has four main gateway gopuras, the principal east gateway seven-tiered and rich in stucco figures. In the third precinct the east tower is the oldest, built by Vikrama Chōḷan (1118 to 1135 CE). Five precincts surround the main shrine. The outer wall of the sanctum has five kōṣṭas, three empty and two holding images of Dakṣiṇāmūrti and Brahmā. The temple has two parts, the Dakṣiṇa Kailāsam and the Uttara Kailāsam, with five sacred ponds. There is a shrine for Āṭkoṇḍār or Kālasaṃhāramūrti, and outside it a homa kuṇḍa said to have been started by Ādi Śaṅkara.

Among the many maṇḍapas, special mention goes to the Mukti Maṇḍapa, behind the Sōmāskanda maṇḍapa and known as the Pañchākṣara or Japēśvara maṇḍapa, where Vināyaka, Liṅgodbhava, Sahasra Liṅga and Navagraha may be seen in a setting suited to meditation.

From its architecture the temple is taken to have been built in the reign of Āditya Chōḷa (871 to 907 CE). It holds many inscriptions of the Chōḷas, Pāṇḍyas, Vijayanagara, the Nāyakas and the Thanjāvūr Marathas. One of 1009 CE records Rāja Rāja's donation of jewellery for the presiding and processional deities; another records the gift of eight pots of silver by Vimalāditta, son-in-law of Rāja Rāja. The Uttara Kailāsam was built by Rāja Rāja's queen Lōkamahā Dēvī while he was building the Thanjāvūr temple, and Rājendra's wife renovated the Dakṣiṇa Kailāsam. The precincts were renovated by the Marudhūr brothers Aṉaippa Piḷḷai and Vaidyanādha Aṇṇaṉ in the 17th century, and again by Pachaiappa Mudaliyar in the 18th.

Ai in Tamil and Pañcha in Sanskrit both mean five. Because five rivers, the Vaḍavāar, Veṇṇār, Veṭṭār, Kuḍamuruṭiyār and Kāveriāar, flow here, the liṅga is Aiyāṟappar in Tamil and Pañchanadhīśvarar in Sanskrit, his consort Aṟamvaḷartha Nāyaki, also called Dharmasaṃvardhinī. Appar, Sambandar and Sundarar have sung of Tiruvaiyāṟu. Legend tells of a devout priest delayed on pilgrimage to Kāśi who returned to find the puja undisrupted, God having performed it in his place; and of Sundarar, unable to cross the flooded river, for whom the waters parted to make a way to the temple.

The present fame of Tiruvaiyāṟu rests on Saint Thyāgarāja (1767 to 1847 CE), one of the Music Trinity, who lived here in a small house and composed many songs in Telugu on Lord Rāma. Invited to join the royal court, he declined and returned the king's gifts, an act immortalised in his song Nidhi Chāla Sukhamā. The day of his samādhi is kept as Ārādhana day, with group singing of his songs, especially the Pancha Ratna Kṛtis, an established tradition. The Saptha Sthāna festival, the wedding of Nandi with Suyaśāmbikā, carries the processional deities of seven temples to the banks of the Kāveri at Tillaisthānam.