Virattanesvaram

The Virattanesvara temple at Tiruttani is almost the last of the Pallava temples. It was built before the 18th regnal year of Aparajita-Vikravarman. It is built of fine polished black stone. Its garbhagriha is square, but its sikhara is apsidal. It has five devakoshtas with sculptures crowned with makara-toranas; and in this respect, it seems to be the forerunner of the type of temples during the Aditya (I) phase of the early Chola period. Here we find for the first time the value of plain wall surface to serve as a background for the devakoshtas.

There seem also to have been in existence here the ashta-parivara shrines in the original temple scheme, but of all the deities of this group, only the set of the Saptamatrikas have come down to us, and they are now lodged loosely in the later mandapa in front of this temple. It seems likely that the plan of this temple influenced the builders of the Tirumulasthanap-peru-manadigal at Tirukkalukkunram built in the days of Aditya I after his conquest of Tondaimandalam.

While Tiruttani has a square garbhagriha and an apsidal sikhara, the temple of Tirumulasthanapperuma-nadigal has an apsidal garbhagriha. Its roof does not exist at present. Perhaps it was also apsidal. As in the former, the temple at Tirukkalukkunram has also five devakoshtas with the same set of sculptures.

New situations and requirements led to new developments. The Vaishnavites wanted a three-storeyed vimana to house the three forms of Vishnu - the seated, the standing and the reclining. This was answered by the erection of the three-storeyed vimana of the Vaikun-thanathar at Kanchipuram (Nandivarman II) and the Sundaravarada temple at Uttaramerur (Dantivarman).

The latter was built about the tenth year of Dantivarman by Paramesvara, a resident of Pataka, a sun among architects and one well-versed in the essential features of decorative art with the help and cooperation of a number of other architects well-versed in architectural science.