In The Silence Of Kadambarmalai.....

The Pudukottai landscape is arid , barren and , in mid-year , sweltering . The parched land is dotted with bald rocky outcrops which seem inhospitable - but , incredibly, have inspired kings and artisans of yore to create exquisite monuments on and around them .

Kadambarmalai, shaped exactly like a child's version of a " Hill " , protects in its shade a group of small but very beautiful Shaiva shrines .

We land there early in the day to be greeted by a dreamy vision of three ancient stone edifices rising from the uneven mother rock . We had been told earlier to meet the ASI watchman who would show us around.

The overall ethos is one of monumental loneliness . The feeling is accentuated by the single sighing tree and a tarn filled with still , green water. Except for the call of a distant peacock, there is no sign of life anywhere in the vicinity.

Where and how is one to search for an ASI guard ?

Resigned to Fate ! Just wander  around , admire the visible , click  pictures and ......

Serendipity ! A young boy materialises from nowhere, who , ( upon our request and some candy money) , runs to the village and fetches a youngman on a bike who (upon our request and some tea money ) zooms to the village and fetches an old man who ......is  the ASI guard ! Hallelujah ! The biker leaves. The boy lingers on.

The main temple, named Thirumalaikkadambureeshwaram ( ok, KadambaNayanar koil is also accepted ! ) is dated to the reign of RajaRaja Chozha - 1 .

 The old watchman unlocks the flimsy looking door of a fort like compound growing out of the very hill. 

A spacious courtyard unfurls before us.

Nice and uncluttered and old and comforting like a grandparent's home . But of course, Siva's Security Guards , the Dwara Palas , are in perpetual vigilence and glare at us. 

The rock face of the hill , forming one wall of the shrine , is  covered with inscription .And a few carvings .

In the pillared prakaram are stored many idols collected from around the place .

The Matrkas , Ganesas, Brahma , Ayyanar, Umamahesha.....Crisp cut pilasters , lovely vyala freize , grivakoshta with indistinct deity, plump simhamukha and the only niche holding a diety : Dakshinamurthy. The Vimana is bell shaped and constructed with stone.

The Devi shrine, standing separately,  is dated to the reign of Maravarman SundaraPandian ( 13 th Cent). Devi is Mangalambika .

Koshta idols are all gone . Pilasters with floral capitals are impressive. The edifice stands on uneven mother-rock , the base of the walls miraculously stacked on that surface to create a straight stable structure.

The Nagarishvaram shrine is the Devi shrine's contemporary and is a plain edifice .

The most interesting sight in the complex is the apprx 20 ft long rectangular "bulletin board" cut into the rock face of the hill beside the Main temple .

The surface has been prepared well and inscribed with edicts from the times of RajaRaja-1 and Kulotthunga- -III. They are records of land grants made by the mercantile communities of the time.

The little pond, Mangala Theertham, is enchanting with a patch of lillies to offset the severe rock face that flanks it .

Soon  the place  would start baking under the earnest sun. Lorries with building material and labourers hired for renovating the place would start arriving from the town.

We leave before the sighing breeze gets warmer , taking with us the cool tranquility of the tarn and the benediction of  Kadambar , reposing in the womb of the shrine.