Narthamalai
Narthamalai is 17 km from Pudukkottai. This cave temple is also called Padhinenbhumi Vinnagaram. ‘Padinen’ refers to the ‘eighteen regions’. Vinnagaram means temple for Vishnu. Perhaps, it was originally a Jaina cave in the 7th century AD, but converted into a Vishnu shrine I 12th or 13th century AD. The date of this conversion is still under debate.
After this conversion it came to be called as Thirumer-koil or Merrali and Padhinenbhumi Vinnagaram. Presently it looks like a Vaishanavite shrine.
It consists of a rectangular garbha-griham and an ardha-mandapam in front, both excavated from the living rock. Presently the grabha-griham is empty, except for a broken stone pitham. This pitham is also carved out of the living rock. The ardhamandapam has two massive pillars and two pilasters in the front, also carved out of the rock. It houses twelve identical but wonderful relief sculptures of Vishnu on the walls.
Each of them is six feet five inches tall and carved on the rock. The sankhu, chakra, the garments and the ornamentation deserve praise. One of the lower hands is in the abhya-mudra, pose indicative of protection and the other touches the thigh. The twelve figures perhaps represent those of the twelve common names of Vishnu – Kesava, Narayana, Nadhava, Govinda, Trivikrama, Vamana, Achyuta, Sridhara, Padmanabha, Damodara, Vasudeva and Madhu-sudhana. In front of this cave temple is a stone plinth of the maha-madapam must have been a closed one supported by square pillars, with walls ornamented with pilasters crowned with capitals.
On the plinth of this mandapam, above the kumudam, runs a beautiful frieze of lions, elephants and yali. At the corners are projection makara heads, with human figures sporting inside their gaping mouths. Carved with loving care, these graceful figures of elephants, lions and yail in playing are one among the finest in existence in this region. They exhibit high levels of creativity, artistic skill and imagination of the sculptors.
There are a number of loose sculptures broken parts sculptures kept on this plinth and also inside the ardha-mandapam. Those on the plinth include two dvara-palakas, a Sapta-matrika group and an Ayyanar. Those inside the ardha-mandapam include two Ganasas. All these sculptures are excavated in and around Narthamalai.