About

The site derives its name from the Tamil phrase for "The Three temples." This temple-complex originally consisted of three identical shrines built in a row all facing west. In front of the trio, was a maha-mandapa, a vrsha-mandapa and a gopura and surrounding the main shrines are sixteen shrines for the subsidiary deities. Of these, the central and the southern shrines are preserved in full and rest of the structures along with the enclosing boundary wall are preserved only on plan. A Sanskrit inscription on the central vimana clearly asserts that Bhuti Vikramakesari, an Irukkuvel chief built the three shrines. He named the central shrine after himself and the two flanking ones after his queens viz. Karrali and Varaguna.

Constructed in:

9th century CE

History

Regarding the dating of Bhuti Vikramakesari’s rule there are two opinions among scholars. One opinion is that he was contemporary to Chola king Aditya I (AD 871-907) and the other opined that he was a contemporary of Sundara Chola (AD957-973) and his son Aditya II (AD 960-965).

Legends

Boothi Vikramakesari was the son of a Chola princess Anupama and Irukkuvel chieftain Samarabirama.

Architecture

The architectural style of this temple is closer to Early Cholas than the latter ones.

The shrines have a beautiful padma-pushkala type of basement (adhisthana). The wall has projections and niches (devakoshthas) canopied by makara-toranas. The upper tiers (talas) of the shrine slightly differ in details but they carry bold square sikhara with kudus.

The temple is adorned with beautiful sculptures of Siva as Ardhanariswara, Bhikshatana, Umasahita, Gangadhara, etc., besides other gods and apsaras.

The two circular pilasters with circular shafts on four sides of the vimana indicates the antiquity of the temple. The feature is possibly termed Vrittasputitas in silpa texts like Shilparatna. Such a feature is found only in few other temples.

These temples follow the Pallava architecture which are relatively small in size.