Recently a 1000 year old temple in Ponparappi (its a village, about 15 km away from Gangai Konda cholapuram - towards Sendurai- Ariyalur) has been renovated and Kumbabishekam was held (on 27th Jan 2013) it�has been held nearly after 100 years.
I took photos of this temple some �4 yrs back , it has so many bronze idols of Nataraja, Somaskanda.. all of them belong to 10th - 11th Century. Even the State ASI visited the temple, but could not find its exact period and the King or Chieftain who built this temple.It has a tunnel too,(i myself have seen it personally), but it is closed now.. They say, the tunnel leads to Big Temple (the locals believed so), it has a compound wall about 10-12 ft height (i guess so)
With the help of the bronze idols, the ASI has informed the locals that the temple dates back to 10th - 11th Century, and may have been built during RJC I's reign.
the main Deity - PERIYANAAYAGI UDANURAI SRI SORNAPUREESWARAR�
BTW, this village is my NATIVE
Many were talking about inscribing the names of people who donated for TEMPLE renovation...
It was a sad sight.to see people were so eager to inscribe their names, but do not KNOW THE NAME OF THE SOUL WHO BUILT THIS TEMPLE
i'm really wondering , how is that not even a single piece of inscription left??? not any symbols, signs..even on the madhil suvar!!.Nothing�
The pity is our own people working in/managing the temples are so ignorant of the value of these temples and do whatever worst they could to spoil the historical importance in the name of renovation ! I think such a situation does not prevail even in Pakistan or Afghanistan leave alone Europe, USA, UK and the Middle East where every care is taken to preserve the historical remains.
The temple was in ruins. Except that the lingam is a shodasa linga ( Mostly Pallava temples have this lingams)
There was no inscriptions in this temple ven before renovation.
The worst renovation was the Narasimmar temple behing nellaiaapr temple wherein there were two "Chozhan Thalaikonda Veerapandian" inscriptions and a Chola inscription were destroyed and the name of around 100 donors ( current) plastered.
Simillarly, the Sivan sannidhi in the praharam of Nellaiappar temple had some vatteluthu inscriptions now gone under the raised platform.
Thirukkandiyur and Thirukkaattuppalli miniatures ( Mostly Ramayana) are now under the raised platforms.