Temples in Perumukkil

Perumukkil is now a small village on the roadside 11 kilometres to the east of Tindivanam on the way to Marakkanam, the ancient port town of Eyilpatna. It is in the Tindivanam taluk of the South Arcot district. There are two temples in this village, one at the foot of a hill and the other on top of it. It is with the latter that we are concerned here. The ancient name of the temple was Tiruvanmigai Isvaram.

Perumukkil or Perumukkal was the scene of much severe fighting between the French and the English in the eighteenth century and still bears the battle scars in the shape of the fallen walls and roof of the prakara of the temple at the foot of the hill.

Local legend connects the name of the place with the epic Ramayana and the place derives its name from the pains of parturition which Sita is believed to have undergone at this place. Accordingly, the locality where the hill is situated is called the hermitage of the sage Valmiki; this also explains the name the temple assumed in the post-Chola period, viz., Valmiki-isvaram Udaiyar temple.

Mukyachalesvara temple

On the west wall of the central shrine of this temple, there is a third-year inscription relating to the period of Vikrama Chola which records that the temple for Tiruvanmigai-isvaram Udaiyar; was built by one Kakku Nayakan alias Kanakarayan. Thus this temple is a foundation of the third year of Vikrama Chola. On the north wall of the mandapa in front of the temple is an eighth year record of Parakesarivarman alias Tribhuvanachakravartin Vikrama Chola deva from which we get the alternate name of Palamukkil, in Perumukkil nadu for the village (ARE 45 of 1905), A ninth year inscription of the same ruler, on the west wall of the central shrine, relates to a gift of land to the temple, where the name of the temple is given as Tiruvanmigai-isvaram (ARE 41 of 1905). On a rock to the right of the steps to the top of the hill where the temple is situated is a record (ARE 37 of 1905) relating to the 16th year of Rajakesarivarman alias Tribhuvanachakravartin Kulottunga Choladeva (who should be Anapaya), mentioning a gift of 30 cows for a lamp to the temple of Tirumalai Tiruvanmis-varam Udaiya Madevar at Perumukkil. There is mention of the gifts made by Kulottunga 1 in his 43rd and 45th years to the same deity; this would imply that the temple existed in some form even in the days of Kulottunga I and that in the early years of Vikrama Chola it was reconstructed in stone. In the 16th year of Parakesarivarman alias Rajaraja deva (II), a gift of 32 cows was made for a lamp in the temple; and in this record Perumukkil is called Edirili-Cholanallur (perhaps after the name of the future Rajadhiraja II who before his accession bore that name). In the fifth year of Rajadhiraja II, a gift of 32 sheep for a lamp is made to this temple called in the inscription Tiruvanmisvaramudaiya Mahadevar (ARE 44 of 1905). On the north wall of the central shrine, there is another record of the same regnal year of Rajadhiraja II, from which we get the name of Gangaikondanallur for Perumukkil (ARE 39 of 1905). Reference to a chief of the locality belonging to the Vrishabha family is made in a Sanskrit and Grantha inscription dated in Saka 1090 (a.d. 1168) found on the south wall of the mandapa. A late Pandya inscription dated in the 6th year of Maravarman Vikrama Pandya found on the north wall of the mandapa in front of the temple refers to a gift of a salt-pan to the temple of Valmikisvaramudaiya Nayanar; it is said that the saltpan had been in the possession of the temple for a long time but that it had remained unused since the time of Kopperunjinga, the Pallava chieftain of the thirteenth century.

From an undated inscription of the Vijayanagara days, we get to know that a certain Lingappa of Padaividu built the steps leading up to the temple from the foot of the hill (ARE 38 of 1905).

This shrine is now in a state of neglect.