Ponniyin Selvan Varalaatru Peravai

You will be surprised at the origin of the word "Koil" so frequently
used today to represent temples.

"Ko" + "Il" = Koil.

Ko means king

"Ko"pparakesari

"Ko"vi raajakesari panmarku yaandu... (frequent lines in chola
inscriptions)

"Ko"chchenganaan

"Ko"pperundevi

Ko means King. It also means cow in tamil.

Il means illam.

So Ko + Il actually represented the place where king stayed or
PALACE.

Tholkappiyar mentions about the 4 gods when he talks about the 4
land types :

Maayon meyak kaadurai ulagamum
Saeyon meya maivarai ulagamum
VAENTHAN meya theembunal ulagamum
Varunan maeya perumanal ulagamum...

Here Vaenthan seems to represent God Indra. As you all know vaenthan
is such a frequent word to represent king

We are not sure if Tholkappiyar was referring to Indra or not. It
could have been later interpretation. he might have referred king
actually

But Ilangovadigal does not leave anything to clues. He is very
explicit

Pirava yakkai periyon koyilum
Vaalvalai maeneon vaaliyon koyilum
Neela maeni nediyon koyilum
MAALAI VENKUDAI MANNAVAN KOYILUM

Here you should notice few things :

HE KEEPS THE KING ON PAR WITH GODS PERIYON (FELT BY MANY AS SHIVA)
NEDIYON (THIRUMAL) AND VAALIYON (BALARAMAN)

He also mentions the palace as Mannavan Koil and other gods temples
in their respective names

The point to note is how king has been placed on par with gods.

The palace OF THE KING WAS ALSO CALLED KOIL - JUST LIKE THAT OF
GODS !

Note their perception. Are you able to digest that a human being was
placed on par with gods ?

Poets patronized it. Kings themselves seem to have enjoyed this and
started thinking that they were vishnu incarnations. Many evidences
silently support this.

At a high (conceptual) level do you see any difference between the
first egyptian emperors who did not hesitate to bury alive 1000+
servents along with them and the kings of our land ?

I don't.