8th century Kalugumalai Jain Beds and Kalugasalamoorthy Temple

It is a panchayat town in Thoothukudi district in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, is dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. Constructed in the Pandyan Architecture and rock cut architecture, the unfinished temple is believed to have been built during the 8th century by Pandyas.

The rock-cut architecture exemplary of early Pandyan Art. The other portions of Kalugumalai houses the 8th century Kalugumalai Jain Beds and Kalugasalamoorthy Temple, a Murugan temple.Vettuvan Koil is the only one of the monolithic Pandya Temple that still survive.

As per local legend, a rivalry between a father and son resulted in son finishing the sculpture first at the lower hills, while the father was slow to respond. In his angst, the father killed the son and thus the shrine remains unfinished.

      History

Sculpture in the temple:
The temple is believed to have been built during 8th century around 800 AD. The hill was under the control of Ettaiyapuram Zamindar until 1954. The Raja gifted the village to the Kalugasalamoorthy Temple and formed five streets around the temple to enable the temple car to pass easily. He also allocated a middle street for the temple priests.

       Architecture:

The temple is located in Kalugumalai, a rockyhill in Thoothukudi district in southern Tamil Nadu. 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.
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 believes that this is the only place where Dakshinamurthy is depicted playing the Mridanga (a percussion instrument), while in all other places, he is depicted playing Veena. Epigrapher like V. Vedachalam believes that there is a spontaneity in the sculptures indicating of natural human movements like in the Shiva and Maa Uma sculpture where they seem to be talking like common folks.
The other portions of Kalugumalai houses the 8th century Jaina Abode and Kalugasalamoorthy Temple, an unfinished Shiva temple.

Historians have equated the temple with similar temples across India based on the monolithic classification. 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.

Some historians believe that the similarities in the architecture are indicative of the political relations between the Pallavas, Rashtrakutas and Chalukyas, which is highly debatable.
Must visit this superior architecture at least once in your life.