Moovar Koil

The plan, three matching shrines set in a row, is unique among the small temples of the region. Of the three only two stand, and one of those retains only its base. Each shrine once had a small maṇḍapa before the garbhagṛha, since lost. A pillared corridor inside the enclosing walls, the entrances, and a passage leading to a sacred well are all now dilapidated, and the vimānas are hollow with the present liṅgas of later date.

The carving is the reason to come. The exteriors carry delicate bhūta gaṇas playing many instruments, makaras and vyāḷis, but the Śiva sculptures are foremost. On the second level of the southern shrine is a dancing Śiva as Kālārimūrti, angry with Yama for taking Mārkaṇḍeya's life. The finest pieces, including a Gajasaṃhāra mūrti and a Mohinī, are now in the Pudukkottai and Chennai museums.

A long inscription on the south wall of the central shrine lists the Irukkaveḷ lineage and names Bhūti Vikrama Kēsari of the 10th century CE as the builder. He funded the central shrine and his queens supported the shrines on either side. The inscription also records eleven villages gifted to feed fifty Kālāmukha ascetics tied to Mallikārjuna's monastery at Madurai, the Kālāmukhas being an extreme Śaiva sect. The Irukkaveḷ were feudatories whose support of the Chōḷas was vital, and Kodumbalur, the Irukkaveḷ capital, lay on the road linking Uṟaiyūr, the Chōḷa capital, and Madurai, the Pāṇḍya capital. Many stones from the site were later carried off for the Trichy rock fort and other works. Legend gives the town 108 temples, and liṅgams and stone fragments continue to be found.

It was perhaps from the Irukkaveḷ family that Vijayālaya Chōḷa, the king who conquered Thanjāvūr, was born or connected by marriage. The town is mentioned in the Silappadikāram epic, where Kavuṇḍi Aḍigaḷ warns Kaṇṇagi and Kōvalan that the road splits and that they must take care on the road to Madurai.