The Colas c35.15

c35.15

Other temples, though smaller, belonging to the same class are also found in the Pudukkottah area. In Virālūr the small Śiva temple has a circular *vimāna* which dispenses with the square stages and is set right on the roof, and there are remains of subshrines. The Bālasubrahmaṇya temple of Kaṇṇanūr, which is marked by entire *yāḷis* in the frieze of the entablature and not merely their busts as in other instances, belongs to the reign of Āditya I, while the small Śiva temples of Viśalūr, Tiruppūr and Kāḷiyāpaṭṭi are all apparently of the time of Vijayālaya. They are all compact little edifices of the typical square type with a sanctum about eight feet square on the outside and five feet inside, and a small *ardhamaṇḍapa* in front closed on the sides with a low entrance facing the east. The *vimāna* of these temples, square in section, rests right on the roof, the *śikhara* being curvilinear and bearing large *kūḍus* with scroll work and *siṁha-mukha* superposed on niches in the *grīva* below. In the niches are found generally Indra on the east, Dakṣiṇāmūrti on the south, Viṣṇu on the west and Brahmā, on the north—a disposition which is repeated on the walls round the *garbhagṛha* in larger shrines with the omission, of course, of the Indra figure on the east and the substitution, at times, of a Lingodbhava for Viṣṇu on the west. These small shrines may with advantage be compared with that represented in the famous rock relief of Māmallapuram showing Bhagīratha's (or Arjuna's?) penance. The Agastyeśvara of Panangudi (II fig. 3) is also of the same class but rather more elaborate as it has niches on the walls of the *garbhagṛha* and excavation has revealed the presence of seven subshrines round it, as round all the others so far mentioned.