Alandurainathar Temple, Pullamangai
Pullamangai, Papanasam taluk, Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu, India
Also known as: Brahmapureeswarar Temple
- Deities
- Brahmapureeswarar / Anandeeswarar (Shiva)
- Traditions
- shaiva
- Worship status
- active
- Coordinates
- 10.8908, 79.175
- Darshan hours
- Varies by season and festival calendar; consult the temple's own trust/devasthanam for the current daily schedule before visiting.
- Best time to visit
- Maha Shivaratri (February/March) is the temple's principal annual festival; the temple is also of standing art-historical interest year-round for its early Chola stone carving.
- How to reach
- Pullamangai is a village near Pasupathikoil in Papanasam taluk, Thanjavur district, reachable by road from Kumbakonam and Thanjavur.
- Festivals
- Maha Shivaratri (February/March)
- Associated saints
- Thirugnana Sambandar
Location
Open in Google MapsThe Alandurainathar Temple at Pullamangai, a village in Thanjavur district’s Papanasam taluk, is a comparatively small but art-historically important Paadal Petra Sthalam, glorified by the Nayanar saint Thirugnanasambandar in the Tevaram. Shiva is worshipped here in two forms, Brahmapureeswarar and Anandeeswarar; no original shrine to a consort goddess has survived. The temple is cited by the art historian James Harle as one of only four early Chola-period temples to survive largely unaltered, built in a style still closely continuing Pallava architectural conventions — making it a valuable, if lesser-known, reference point for the transition between the two dynasties’ temple architecture.
The surviving garbhagriha (sanctum) and arthamandapa (front hall) preserve their original early Chola fabric, including miniature sculptural panels narrating scenes from the Ramayana and niche images of Dakshinamurthy, Lingodhbhavar, Brahma, Durga, Vishnu, Narasimha, and Tripurantaka. The temple remains an active, if modest, site of worship, with Maha Shivaratri as its principal annual observance.
Sources
- scripture: Tevaram — 7th-century Tamil Shaiva canon; this temple is glorified by Thirugnanasambandar, giving it Paadal Petra Sthalam status among the 275 shrines of the canon.
- historical record: Cross-checked against Wikipedia's Alandurainathar Temple, Pullamangai article: confirms the presiding deities, worshipped as Brahmapureeswarar and Anandeeswarar, with no surviving original consort shrine; the art historian James Harle's identification of this as one of only four early, extant, largely unaltered Chola-period temples, built in a style continuing Pallava conventions; miniature sculptural panels depicting Ramayana scenes; and images of Dakshinamurthy, Lingodhbhavar, Brahma, Durga, Vishnu, Narasimha, and Tripurantaka in the surviving garbhagriha and arthamandapa, which represent the original structure.