Thanumalayan Temple

The towering gopuram rises more than 130 feet and is visible from far off, with small shrines beside it for Teradi Madan, Teradi Bhuthathan and Udaya Marthanda Ganapathy, old local village deities now serving as the gopuram's guardians. Inside is the grand Nataka Shala, many of its pillars with women's sculptures donated by the temple's Devadasis, and at the front images of two donors to the gopuram, Nilakanta Purushottama of the Tekkuman Matha and a pontiff of the Tiruvavaduthurai Matha.

Through the second entrance is the unjal mandapa, with sculptures of Rati and Manmatha and some of the Pandavas. The Vasanta mandapa holds a large Nilakanta Ganesha with tiny mice at his side. Six shrines stand in a row from north to south for Gauri, Shambu (Śiva), Sri as the Sri Chakram where the Goddess is personified as nature, Krishna, and Śiva as a linga with Parvathi. Close by are musical pillars, as at the Nellaiyappar temple in Tirunelveli, and the shrine of the goddess Aram Valartha Nayaki.

The Kailasattu Mahadeva shrine inside is built on a rock dressed in 1917 and may predate the present main deity. A 16-foot-high Anjaneya, a rare image of its time, was buried between 1742 and 1872 and re-erected only in 1929. Rare Jayanteeswara shrines lie southwest of one shrine, suggesting the temple was once an important Devi or Shakta site. Other structures include the Chit Sabha and the Chempakaraman Mandapa, and the main deities, Śiva and a reclining Vishnu, stand close by.

Older records call the deity Srivindramudaya Emperumanar, Parameswara and Paramaswamin; from 1471 he is known as Sthanumalayan. An inscription dated 1 March 1444 records that a respected woman and her 13-year-old daughter were praying when the girl disappeared, believed to have vanished into the shrine.

Suchindram was the spiritual capital of Nanji Nad, the southernmost region once called by that name, watered by the Palayar and built up with granite and iron ore from the hills; its seacoast had saltpans recorded even in the 11th century CE. The Aralvaimozhi pass nearby was a much-marched route into Kerala. The temple's extensive inscriptions and its joint enshrinement of Śiva and Vishnu mark it as one of the grander temples of the far south.

The deity Sthanumalayan is an early composite form of the Vedic god, bringing together the three chief gods: Sthanu is Śiva, Mal is Tirumala or Vishnu, and Aya is Brahma. Legend tells that the three goddesses came here to take back their husbands, Śiva, Vishnu and Brahma, after Anasuya had turned them into babies; they are shown seated together on one side of the carved halls.

Near the Garuda shrine, an elephant is shown trampling a man beside a weighing scale, the story of a dishonest goldsmith punished by King Tirumala Nayaka for tampering with the weight of gold. The Subramanya shrine holds a short, stout seated figure with a nail through his hand, said to be a corrupt official punished by Velu Thampi, the Dalavay and commander of Bala Martanda Varma (1798 to 1810 CE).