CENTER FOR ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY

By its style the Uttamadanisvara temple at Kiranur is a Muttaraiyar foundation. An inscription of the thirteenth year of Ko-Ilango Muttaraiyar calls the temple Uttamadanisvara, after Ko-Ilango’s alias of Uttamadani. Ko-Ilango Muttaraiyar could be the same person as Ilango Adiaraiyan alias Cattan Pudi, the builder of Vijayalaya-Colisvara. If this is indeed true then the temple belongs to the second quarter of the ninth century CE. No Chola donator inscriptions are found on this temple. Reference: M.W. Meister and M.A. Dhaky 1963, pp. 141-142.

Uttar Pradesh (Architectural Drawings)

Also known as Vada Kailasam (the place of five rivers), the Uttara Kailasa temple of the Pancanadisvara complex was built by Rajaraja I's (985 – 1014 CE) senior queen Danti Sakti Vitanki alias Loga Mahadevi in about 1006 CE. This temple is significant for it bears an inscription from the reign of Rajadhiraja I (1018-1054 CE), which gives a complete narration of the wars and the victories of the Chola king elucidating contemporary political events and the extent of the empire. References: M.W. Meister and M.A. Dhaky 1963, p. 231, S.R. Balasubrahmanyam, 1975, p. 89 and B. Venkataraman, 1976, pp. 85-90.

Uttarakhand (Architectural Drawings)

Vadakkunatha complex, Trichur, Kerala

The Vadapurisvara temple at Tiruvedikudi is one of the seven temples of the ‘Saptasthana Kshetras’ of the Tiruvaiyaru group. This temple is sung by Appar and Sambandar. The deity is said to have been worshipped by the Vedas. The temple has only about six inscriptions on its walls that can be ascribed to Aditya I owing to the archaic script in which they are written. The two-storied (dvitala) structure has original images of Durga, Brahma and Ardhanari in their divinity niches (devakoshtas). Reference: S.R. Balasubrahmanyam, 1966, pp.156-157.