Navagraha

The cluster spreads across separate temples, each housing one planetary deity. Most have a five tier Rajagopura and a granite wall enclosing the shrines. The Suryanar Koil at Aduthurai, east of Kumbakonam, is the only temple where the nine planets are housed individually under one roof, with the Sun as the main deity and the others in surrounding shrines. Within the Shiva temples of the cluster, Śiva is represented as a liṅga. The architecture of these temples is described as very simple.

The original Navagraha temples were built by the Chōḷas between the seventh and eleventh centuries, with later additions by Vijayanagara rulers. Kulōttuṅga Chōḷa I, who ruled 1070 to 1120 CE, built the Suryanar temple, while a Vijayanagara king built the modern granite shrine there. The Vaitheeswaran temple, which holds the Mars shrine, has five inscriptions of Kulōttuṅga's period: one at the Subrahmanya shrine describing a sluice shutter at Sattainathar Puram, another on the renovation of the Amman shrine and its hall, and another recording a gift of tax free land at Manipallam on behalf of Krishnadevaraya.

The deities are distributed across temples on both banks of the Kaveri. Six of the nine lie on the south bank and the rest on the north. Eight are in Tamil Nadu and one, the Shani temple at Tirunallar, is in Karaikal, Puducherry. Chandra is at the Kailasanadhar temple in Thingalur, Angāraka at Vaitheeswaran Koil, Buddha at Swetharanyeswar in Tiruvenkadu, Guru at the Apathsahayeswar temple in Alangudi, Sukra at the Agniswara temple in Kanjanoor, Rahu at Tirunageswaram and Ketu at the Naganatha Swamy temple at Keezhaperumpallam near Poompuhar.

Hindus hold that the planets influence human lives for good or ill, and that propitiating them mitigates adverse effects, a belief that has lifted the Navagraha temples to prominence. Thingalur is associated with the saint Appar bringing back the son of Appodhi Adigal. Muthuswami Dikshitar composed a song on Suriyanar.