An ancient temple with a rare Siva Linga

DCHITHRA MADHAVAN city

-  CHITHRA MADHAVAN

com The writer is a historian who focuses on temple architecture AMAL, an ancient village close to Kanchipuram, is home to two temples one for Siva worshipped as Varahishwarar and the other for Vishnu, wherein this deity is consecrated as Damodara Perumal. According to the Sthala Puranam or the hoary tradition of the Varahishwarar temple, God Varaha (the third incarnation of Vishnu, worshipped the Siva Linga here and hence the Sankha (conch) and Chakra (discus) marks of Vishnu are said to be seen on this Linga. This temple probably belongs to the Pallava times, with subsequent additions during the Chola and Vijayanagara as seen from the architecture and sculptures. Vijayanagara inscriptions in this temple mention the name of this deity as Panrishwara and Thiru Panrishwaram Udaiya Tambiranar, because of the Varaha connection with this temple. This village was known by the names Damar or Tama