Talagirisvara Temple, Panamalai

Talagirisvara Temple stands on a small hillock above the Panamalai lake in the village of Panamalai, Viluppuram district. It is credited to the Pallava king Narasimhavarman II, known as Rajasimha, who also built the Shore Temple at Mamallapuram and the Kailasanathar Temple at Kanchipuram, and the tower of this 7th-century shrine resembles that of the Kailasanathar.

The east-facing sanctum holds a linga, with a Somaskanda panel on its back wall in the Pallava manner, and is ringed on three sides by small attached shrines. The half-hall in front carries panels of Brahma with Saraswati and Vishnu with Lakshmi, and pillars with squatting lions, a Pallava hallmark, survive. A large hall and more shrines were added much later, and the top tier of the three-tiered tower has been rebuilt. In the northern shrine a small patch of mural painting has lasted; its figure of Shiva as Nataraja is described as the earliest representation of that form.