THARAMANGALAM KAILASANATHAR TEMPLE – A STUDY ON ARCHITECTURAL EXCELLENCE

The Kailasanathar temple in Tharamangalam at the outskirts of Salem town is an architectural marvel with sculptures equivalent to Madurai Meenakshi temple, is dedicated to lord Shiva. Some parts of the temple go back to the 10th century period. The present structure is claimed to belong to the 17th century Gatti Mudali rule. An amazing fact about the construction of this temple is that the sculptures here were based on monolithic stonesJust in front of the entrance to the inner sanctum, we can visualize on the ceiling the inverted open lotus with pairs of elegant chains carved out of stone. That lotus can be rotated with a stick. The stone carving of the ‘Yali’ (a lion face with a stone ball in the mouth) is the most attractive sculpture in the temple.