The deity in this temple is believed to have given the final ruling with regard to the borders for the lands of Cheras, Chozhas and Pandias. Interesting read.
The article also mentions another Rama temple, adjacent to the Amman temple. If you read the article (I dont know if I misunderstood or overlooked), there is a picture of the temple. Is that the picture of the amman temple, or rama temple. The descriplion in the text is more of a shivite temple, and the pic shown is a vaishnavite temple.
How I stumbled onto this article:
I was looking around to see who Karuvurar was. Was he the actual architect of the Thanjavur temple (I read it in a book on the temple somewhere)? The temple mentioned in the article has a statue of Karuvurar.
Was he an architect and a siddha doctor? There are manuscripts by this person, so he is a doctor for sure.
So, was he just a siddhar who helped Rajaraja consecrate the shrine, or was he the architect? If he wasnt, who was the architect? Do we have any records on this? Does anyone know?
Dear Thilak Karuvurar was a siddar and yogi not an architect...He was the king Rajaraja spiritual advisor of sorts....You have seen his temple in periya koil.. There is a local legend....There are some lizards in the tree behind the karuvurar sannithi in periya koil. If yoiu think of something and pray your wish will be granted if you spot one or more of the maraballis on the contrary if that wish was unattainable...you will not see a lizard even if you stand upside down....Personal experience..thilak will agree.. There is also a legend that karuvurar predicted the advent of europeans and that is why Rajaraja erected the Western bust on the northface of the temple as a warning to his future generations.....I shall upload a picture of that tommorow Thilak Did you notice that the Unesco calls Rajaraja Founder of Chola Kingdom on their World Heritage Site. http://whc.unesco.org/sites/250.htm
The name of the chief sthapathi is Rajaraja perunthachar. I don't remember the name of his two assistants and i will let you know tomorrow.
As Balakumaran said, in Chidambaram temple, there is a painting of Rajarajan with his 14 wives. He is looking very masculine and not feminine as portrayed in the paintings of PS. In that he is having moustache and beard and the posture is very mejastic.
The bronze statue of Rajaraja inside periyakoil om the leftside of the main sannithanam showing him worshiping the urchavaamoorthy and parvathi and the statue of Rajaraja in the Kodikambam next to the nandhi where again he is worshiping the lord...both have only a mousthache!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kamal....In Maniam's pictures men have a feminine features but Vinu's ( In second publication) they are not that feminine....