Kampaheswarar Temple, Thirubuvanam

The Kampaheswarar Temple at Thirubuvanam, a village on the Mayiladuthurai–Kumbakonam road in Thanjavur district, is dedicated to Shiva as Kampahareswarar, the remover of trembling, after the legend that he cured a king haunted by a brahmarakshasa of his quaking. Inscriptions on its south wall credit Kulothunga Chola III with building it to mark his northern campaign, and scholars date it to around 1176. It is regarded as the last of four great Chola temples, after the Brihadisvara at Thanjavur, Gangaikonda Cholapuram and the Airavatesvara temple.

Built in the Dravidian style, it has a vimana that is unusually tall compared with other South Indian temples. A shrine is given to Sharabha, a form of Shiva as an eight-legged beast, part lion and part bird, said to have been taken to calm the fury of Narasimha. Inscriptions in Grantha and Tamil record the building work and later village agreements, and the temple is counted among the Vaippu Sthalams sung by Appar.