Neyyadiappar Temple, Tillaisthanam

Neyyadiappar Temple stands at Thillaisthanam, also called Thiruneithanam, 21 kilometres from Kumbakonam on the road to Thiruvaiyaru and Thanjavur and 3 kilometres from Thirukkandiyur. It is one of the Saptasthanam, the seven temples tied to the Aiyarappar temple at Thiruvaiyaru. Shiva is worshipped as Neyyadiappar, with Parvati as Piraisoodi Amman, and the temple is praised in the 7th-century Tevaram.

The present temple is believed to have been built in the 9th century by the Chola king Aditya I, with later additions by other Chola kings and the Thanjavur Nayaks. The earliest inscription, of 862, dates from the Pandya king Varaguna II, and others record gold given for lamps under the Pallava Nandivarman III, a hundred sheep and a golden lamp. A five-tiered gopuram leads into two precincts. The east-facing sanctum is square, about 6 metres across, under an all-stone two-tiered roof, and the 13th-century shrine of Balambigai in the second precinct shows the goddess standing with a rosary and lotus.