The Kalyanasundaresar Temple is a Hindu

Hindu

Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...

 temple situated in the village of Nallur

Nallur

Nallur is a panchayat town in Kanniyakumari district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.-Geography:Nallur is located at . It has an average elevation of 15 metres .-Demographics:...

 near the town of Papanasam

Papanasam

Papanasam is a panchayat town in Thanjavur district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. In otherwords it is a grown up village and Growing Town. This is the town 25 km from Tanjore and 15 km from Kumbakonam...

 in Thanjavur district

Thanjavur District

Thanjavur District is one of the 32 districts of the state of Tamil Nadu, in southeastern India. Its headquarters is Thanjavur.-Geography:...

, Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. The presiding deity is Shiva

Shiva

Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...

 who is worshipped in the form of a lingam

Lingam

The Lingam is a representation of the Hindu deity Shiva used for worship in temples....

. The temple was constructed by the Medieval Cholas

Medieval Cholas

Medieval Cholas rose to prominence during the middle of the 9th century C.E. and established the greatest empire South India had seen. They successfully united the South India under their rule and through their naval strength extended their influence in the Southeast Asian countries such as Srivijaya...

.

The temple is located 8 km away from Kumbakonam on the Kumbakonam- Tanjore road. The temple is 3 km away from Sundaraperumal kovil and 1 km from Vazhapazhakadai. The best mode is taking town buses from Kumbakonam or mini buses from Darasuram. The Sundaraperumal kovil railway station is also close by to the temple.

Legend

According to the Hindu Puranas

Puranas

The Puranas are a genre of important Hindu, Jain and Buddhist religious texts, notably consisting of narratives of the history of the universe from creation to destruction, genealogies of kings, heroes, sages, and demigods, and descriptions of Hindu cosmology, philosophy, and geography.Puranas...

, at the spot where the temple now stands, the sage Agastya

Agastya

Agastya was a Tamil/Vedic Siddhar or sage. Agastya and his clan are also generally credited with uncovering many mantras of the Rig Veda, the earliest and most revered Hindu scripture, in the sense of first having the mantras revealed in his mind by the Supreme Brahman...

 witnessed the marriage of Shiva

Shiva

Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...

 and Parvathi in Kailasa. Kunti, the mother of the Pandavas, central character in the Indian epic

Epic (genre)

An epic is traditionally a genre of poetry, known as epic poetry. However in modern terms, epic is often extended to other art forms, such as novels, plays, films, and video games where the story is centered on heroic characters, and the action takes place on a grand scale, just as in epic poetry...

 Mahabharatha is believed to have bathed in the temple tank of this shrine.

History

The temple dates from the time of the 10th century AD Medieval Chola king Uttama Chola whose inscriptions have been found in its walls. Another inscription dated to the fifteenth year of Raja Raja Chola makes a reference to Panchavanmahadevi chaturvedimanagalam which is another name for the village of Nallur

Nallur

Nallur is a panchayat town in Kanniyakumari district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.-Geography:Nallur is located at . It has an average elevation of 15 metres .-Demographics:...

. There are also inscription by Later Chola kings and by Hoysala monarchs.

Nallur Kali

The temple is also famous for Kali

Kali

' , also known as ' , is the Hindu goddess associated with power, shakti. The name Kali comes from kāla, which means black, time, death, lord of death, Shiva. Kali means "the black one". Since Shiva is called Kāla - the eternal time, Kālī, his consort, also means "Time" or "Death" . Hence, Kāli is...

 on the southern prakaram

Prakaram

A Prakaram, also spelled Pragaram or Pragaaram) in Indian architecture is an outer parth around the Hindu temple sanctum. These may be enclosed or open and are typically enclosed for the inner most prakaram....

(closed precincts of a temple) of the temple.