Gokarnesa Temple

The Tirugokarnam temple is a rock-cut temple of notable workmanship, located in a suburb of Pudukkottai town, a hub that flourished under the Thondaimans. It began as a simple excavation in the low-lying rock and was added to over centuries to its present size of multiple shrines and mandapas, the maha mandapa and other mandapas being structural rather than rock-cut.

The main sanctum is a cubical cell housing a lingam called Gokarnesa. The rectangular verandah in front resembles those at the cave temples of Sitthanavasal and Kudumianmalai, both within a 20 km radius, and its walls carry large bas-reliefs of Ganesha and Gangadharamurti. The top floor holds subsidiary shrines for Durga, Lakshmi, Sarasvati, Subramanya, Bhairava and Jvarahareshwara, the destroyer of fever. The shrine of Brihadamba is a newer addition, probably not older than 200 to 250 years; the mandapa opposite it and the corridor from the street are in the Madurai Nayaka style, and the mandapa ceiling carries 17th to 18th century murals of the Ramayana with labels in Telugu. The sacred tree is the Magizha Maram, the Bakula or Spanish Cherry tree.

Rock-cut excavation was most popular across India until about the 7th to 8th centuries CE, after which structural architecture took over, so the rock-cut cave places this temple in the early centuries. The core was first believed a Pallava shrine of King Mahendravarman, but further exploration confirmed it as 8th-century Pandya work, like the other rock-cut caves of the region, supported by an 8th-century inscription. There is a note of gifts from the time of the Pandya ruler Varaguna I and the early Cholas, with Chola inscriptions from the time of Raja Raja I, Kulotunga II and Raja Raja III, and an inscription of the Vijayanagara king Krishna Deva Raya recording liberal gifts. The walls of the Brihadamba shrine carry no inscriptions.

Under the Thondaiman rulers of Pudukkottai the temple was probably at its most popular, on account of the goddess Brihadamba. They styled themselves Sri Brihadamba Dass, servants of Brihadamba, and worshipped her as their kuladeivam; they are believed to have donated a perpetual oil lamp, still in the Amman shrine, held coronation ceremonies of the later rulers here, and named the Pudukkottai state coin the Amman kasu after her.

The sthala puranam turns on Kamadhenu, the divine cow who grants all that is desired. Cursed by Indra, she was banished to live on earth until she overcame her sins, which she could do by worshipping Gokarnesa here, in present-day Pudukkottai.