Temples in Pulivay

Pulivay is now a small village in the Chingleput taluk of the district of the same name. Here is located a small temple named the Mahamunisvara temple. In ancient days, the deity bore the name of Vyaghrapada-Mahamunisvaram Udaiyar.

Mahamunisvara (Vyakkirapadamamunisuram Udaiyar) temple

There are three records on the south wall of this temple, one of which is undated; the other two belong to the 23rd year of Tribhuvanachakravartin Rajaraja devar (III). The undated record, which is fragmentary, mentions that one Raman Tali alias Sivabhattan, belonging to the regiment of Narasinga Vikki-rama virar of the king’s army, built the temple and made a gift of 90 sheep for a lamp (ARE 159 of 1923). One of the dated ones registers a gift of 1,000 kasus by a certain Rajaraja Villuparaiyan for a twilight lamp to the god Vyakkirapada-Mamunisuram Udaiyar at Pulivay in Pulivala nadu, a subdivision of Kaliyur kottam, a district of Jayangondasola mandalam (ARE 157 of1923); the other records that the repair of the temple was the work of Peruman alias Gandagopalan-Pichchan of Nerkuppai in Tanjavur kurram, a subdivision of Pandikulasani valanadu. A later Kannada inscription on the doorjamb of the temple records the reconstruction of a mandapa for the god Mahamunisvara by Sangaya and Tayappa, sons of the Mahapradhana Mamchapa Danayakka Vodeyar (ARE 160 of 1923).

This temple is a foundation of the early 13th century and was built before the 23rd year of Rajaraja III (also see The Colas by K. A; Nilakanta Sastri, p. 457).