Adi Kumbeswarar Temple

Adi Kumbeswarar Temple in Kumbakonam is dedicated to Shiva as Adi Kumbeswarar, worshipped as a linga, with Parvati as Mangalambigai, and is praised in the 7th-century Tevaram. The town's name comes from the legend tied to the temple: Brahma's pot, the kumbha holding the seeds of all life, was swept away in a cosmic flood and came to rest here, and its nectar fell into the Mahamaham and Potramarai tanks, an event recalled in the Mahamaham festival every 12 years. The linga is believed to have been shaped by Shiva from nectar and sand.

The masonry dates from the 9th-century Cholas, with later additions under the Vijayanagara rulers and Thanjavur Nayaks. Described as Kumbakonam's largest Shiva temple, it covers about 4 acres in the town centre with four gopurams, the tallest, on the east, rising 11 storeys to 128 feet. A sixteen-pillared hall of the Vijayanagara period has all 27 stars and 12 zodiac signs carved on a single stone, and five silver-plated chariots carry the deities at festivals.