Kokarneswarar Temple, Thirukokarnam

Kokarneswarar Temple is at Thirukokarnam, a town about 5 km from Pudukkottai in Tamil Nadu. Its rock-cut core was made under the Pallava king Mahendravarman I in about the mid-7th century CE, and the Cholas and Pandyas added to it early in the second millennium. The presiding deity, Kokarneswarar, is a form of Shiva; his consort Brihadambal was the family deity of the Thondaiman kings who ruled the princely state of Pudukkottai.

The complex holds shrines to Ganesa, Gangadhara and the Saptakannis, along with an image of Sadasiva Brahmananda, guru to the Thondaiman rulers, set beneath a bikula tree. Priests still conduct worship here, and it is thought that, after the Mundeshwari Temple, it may be the second oldest Hindu temple still in active use whose early stonework can be dated precisely.