ADHVAGATI

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 vis...

Entrance to the Cave Shrine  Nine rocky hills sprout from the barren region in and around the small town named Narthamalai . The name Narthamalai comes from " Nagaratthar " the wealthy mercantile community , now called Chettiars , whose trade centers and guilds ( or Nagarams) , once functioned in the region that is now Pudukottai and Ramanathapuram districts . Of the nine hills , the broadest one is known by many names : Narthamalai , Samanar Malai , Melamalai and Sivan Malai . On the summit of this bald outcrop are three ancient temples of different periods , two of them Rock Cut shrines . The structural temple complex Vijayalayacholeewaram, built by a Muttharayar chief , dominates the ledge , from below which spreads an expanse of cultivated fields , sparse woods , bald rocks and wastelands right up to the horizon . Opposite this temple , carved into the vertical face of a large outcrop , is the large rockcut shrine , called:  Pathinen Bhoo...