freids, no doubt it was estabilished around the year 1350 by gurunamasivayamoorthy. he was a student of the student of umapathisivachariyar( whose samadhi is in the university campus itself!).
thiru-avadu-thurai library was estabilished then itself but books accumulated over time. many people have contributed to it including u.ve.sa.
it is a precursor and inspiration for the great tanjore library. the maratha kings had excellant relationship with the adheenam.
it is keeping itself actively isolated from the modern times. in a sense it is good too.
saiva researchers like me have benefited immensely from it. as for as iam concerned my body belong to chidambaram and my soul to avadu-thurai. when i travel from chidambaram to avaduthurai i feel the same feeling that thirumoolar would have had when he had to go there and burry his work beneath the palipeedam.
what made him to hide his work? what made sambandar to find them? recently the ceremony of gifting sambandar for retreiving thirumanthiram by lord shiva was enacted by the mutt. the processions of the idols ,the trumpets, the peoples singing of the sambandar hymns....i can not put it in words. the days have hardly changed. the same people same hymns, same pontiffs, 1500 year old ritual!
these places need our absence to thrive and to be preserved for few more centuries atleast.
the library is small but no way inferior to any ancient libraries in europe or even vatican. out of sheer joy iam visiting again this saturday to see the library,adheenam and temples of idaimarudhoor and gomuktheeswarar! i will take some professors along with me among them one is a christian another is a iyengar both of them lovers of tanjore civilisation.