Muvar Koil, Kodumbalur

Kodumbalur is a village in the Iluppur taluk of Pudukkottai district, Tamil Nadu.  This monument is located at about 42 km west from Pudukkottai, 13 km north west from Iluppur, 10 km south west from Viralimalai.   A Sanskrit inscription engraved on the central Vimana clearly asserts that three vimanas were built of stones by Bhuti Vikramakesari, a Irukkuvel chief and he named the central vimana after himself and the two flanking ones after his queens viz. Karrali and varaguna. The scholars are divided in the dating of Bhuti Vikramakesari’s rule as one opinion is that he is a contemporary of Chola king Aditya I ( CE 871-907) and another is that he is contemporary of Sundara Chola ( CE 957-973) and his son Aditya II ( CE 960-965). Leaving aside the epigraphical evidences, the architectural style of this temple is closer to Early Cholas than the latter ones. This temple was identified with Tirupudisvaram, a name that occurs in another record of MahimalyaIrukkuvel in the Muchukundesvara temple of the same place.

The structural edifice called ‘Muvar Kovil’ is one of the prime examples illustrating the development of early temple architecture in south India. This temple-complex originally consisted of three identical shrines built in a row all facing west. In front of the trio was a maha-mandapa, a vrsha-mandapa and a gopura and a surround of sixteen shrines for the parivara  devatas. Of these above-mentioned structures, the centre and the southern vimanas are preserved in full and rest of the structure are preserved only on plan and that too brought to light in the clearance work done by the Durbar, The vimanas has a beautiful padma-pushkala type  of adhishthana comprising the mouldings of upana, scalloped padma, vritta-kumuda, vyalavari, and prati. The pada has bhadra and karna projections and the later has the devakoshtahs canopied by makara-toranas. The upper talas of  the vimanas slightly differ in details but they carry bold square sikhara with kudus.