Thanthodreeswarar Temple

The main shrine is a cave temple hewn out of the parent hill rock, fully aligned and proportional, one of the rare cave temples of the Pandya region. It has since been added to with subsidiary shrines. Below it, beside a spring-water pool, a smaller cave holds an early bas-relief of Ganesa, among the oldest in the region.

Further temples stand here and at the foot of the hill, all plain structures with only one or two cells for pilgrims, and a small shrine for Muruga or Karthikeya crowns the hill. One inscription on the rock is a long line carved with decorative motifs at both ends, recording the length of a land-measuring rod, rare to find. The book notes there is no bhakti literature on these temples.

The cave is stylistically dated to at least the 9th century CE or earlier. The book groups the temple's inscriptions into gifts by individuals, gifts by groups, and records of agreements. In 1597 CE merchants from Ilayatangudi gave a wooden temple ratha with 50 gold coins and 500 kalam of paddy for the festival (ARE 1916, C45); goldsmiths and blacksmiths of Attur gave land in gratitude when a dispute between them was resolved (ARE 1916, C44).

An inscription of 1296 CE, in the reign of the Pandya king Jatavarman Sundara Pandya, records temple authorities granting land to one Sundara Pandya Narasingadevan on condition that he repair disused water sources, clear the jungle, and pay a melvaram, or land tax, to the temple. The tax fell to a third of the produce for crops such as millets, sesame, lentils, sugarcane, turmeric, ginger and banana, a fifth for coconut and areca, and a seventh for dry crops; newly cleared land was taxed lightly at first and rose by stages to a permanent third. The inscription states the temple's share belongs to the king, underlining the king and temple bond.