Pallava Architecture, Part I (MASI 17) c2.88

c2.88

(3) On the south wall—Nandikēśvara and Chandikēśvara with a weapon in hand. The Sōmaskanda panel carved on the back wall of the main shrine indicates that this temple is later than the Orukal Mandapa. On top of the hill a few yards distant from the steps leading up to the temple entrance and stuck in the ground by the side of the pathway is a granite pillar, or rather a pilaster, the base of which is decorated with one of the big conventional lions so familiar in temples built in the Rājasimha style. The presence of this pillar clearly denotes that there was once a Pallava temple on the hill belonging to the Rājasimha period. There is thus sufficient evidence to prove that Tirukkalukkunram was a stronghold of the Pallavas from the earliest times down to about the ninth century A. D.