Temples in Tondamanad (34th year)

Tondamanad lies about six miles (9.66 km.) north west of Kalahasti. This place was formerly called Tondaman-Perarrur in Arrur nadu, a subdivision of Tiruvengada kottam. Aditya I seems to have died here and an inscription at Tirumalpuram calls him “Tondaiman Arrur Tunjina udaiyar” and Tondaman Arrur is only modern Tondamanad. In or before his 34 year Parantaka I, his dutiful son, raised a Pallippadai temple over the burial place of his father and the Lord of the temple thus raised is called in the inscription, “Pallippadai Vagisvarapandita Bhattarar Sri Kodanda-ramesvaramagiya Adityesvara Grihattu-Alvar”. Aditya I had the surname of Kodandarama and this memorial sepulchral temple was named after both these names. A large endowment was also made for the celebration of a festival, the feeding of a thousand persons on the festival days and for the supply of food offerings, vegetables, curds, ghee and other requirements for the celebration of the festival from the asterism of Kettai to that of Sadayam in the month of Purattasi.

This is a historical monument built by a great Chola ruler in memory of his equally great father and it is a pity to see the monument in a dilapidated and neglected condition. The main walls of the temple including the fine basement, the foundation-inscription on its moulding of Parantaka I, the yali frieze, the deva-koshtas and the Linga in the sanctum have survived and are in a fairly tolerable state of preservation. The Department of Archaeology should take immediate steps to declare it a protected monument.