Vettuvan Koil

Side view of Vettuvan Koil

The Vettuvan Koil is in Kalugumalai, about 60 kilometers north of Tirunelveli and 20 kilometers west of Kovilpatti. It is located in Thoothukudi district in southern Tamil Nadu. The temple sits on the top of a stone hillock on the eastern side. It opens and overlooks to the east, but shares the entrance and a walk path from the west side of the hillock with the Kalugumalai Jain Beds (Highway 187). The temple was built in the 8th century along with the Kalugumalai Jain Beds under the patronage of Parandhagan Netunjadaiyan of the early Pandyan era.[2][3]

Top view of Vettuvan Koil

The temple is carved out from a single rock in a rectangular portion measuring 7.5 m (25 ft) in depth. The carvings in the temple show the top portion of the temple, with an unfinished bottom. The sculptures and the carvings are indicative of Pandyan art during the period.[3] The granite rock looks like a blooming lotus, with hills surrounding it on three sides. The vimana (ceiling over the sanctum) has niches of Parsavadevatas, the attendant deities of Shiva, like ganas, Dakshinamurthy depicted playing a mridanga, Siva with his consort Uma, dancers, various niches of Nandi (the sacred bull of Shiva) and animals like monkeys and lions. Historian Sivaramamurti states that this is the only site where Dakshinamurthy is depicted playing the Mridanga (a percussion instrument), while in all other places, he is depicted playing Veena. According to epigrapher V. Vedachalam, there is a spontaneity in the sculptures indicating of natural human movements like in the Shiva and Uma sculpture where they seem to be talking like common folks.[4] The Vettuvan Koil is an unfinished Shiva temple.

The other portions of Kalugumalai hillock houses the 8th century Jaina Abode (southwest of Vettuvan Koil) and Kalugasalamoorthy Temple to the south end of the hillock.[5][6]

Historians have equated the temple with similar temples across India based on the monolithic classification and being carved in-situ out of a pre-existing rock. Historian K.V. Soundara Rajan believes that the temple is similar in architecture to that of Virupaksha Temple at Karnataka by Vikramaditya II during 734–44, Kanchi Kailasanathar Temple built by Narasimhavarman II during 685–705 AD and Kailasa temple, Ellora by Krishna I during 756–77.[7] Some historians suggest that the similarities in the architecture are indicative of the political relations between the Pallavas, Rashtrakutas and Chalukyas. This view has been disputed by other historians.[8]

Sculpture in the temple

As per local legend, there was a rivalry between a father and son sculptors on who would attain the best specimen. The son started to work on the lower rock for the Murugan shrine, while the father started working uphill. The son claimed that the father would never finish the shrine, which infuriated the father to kill the son. It is believed that the son was able to finish the Murugan temple at the foothills, but the father's work on this temple was incomplete. Another variant of the legend states that the father wanted his son to take time to learn the tricks to start his work. Foregoing the orders of the father, the son started chiselling in the inner chamber. Hearing the sound and raged by the disobedience, the father killed the son. There two literal Tamil meanings to Vettuvan Koil, one of which means "Heaven of sculptors", while the other means the temple of slayer.[4]

Vettuvan Koil is maintained and administered by Department of Archaeology of the Government of Tamil Nadu as a protected monument.[9] Kalugumalai was chosen in the plan to be included as a rural tourism site in Incredible India campaign by the Tourism Ministry of the Government of India.[10] As a part of the campaign the ministry allocated ₹10 million to develop the infrastructure around the region in 2008. The tourist inflow to the town increased to 3,000 persons per month during 2009 from 400 per month during the previous years.[11]