Thanthoneeswarar Temple, Woraiyur

The Thanthoneeswarar Temple stands in Woraiyur, a suburb of Tiruchirappalli. The Pandya ruler Varaguna Pandiyan II built it in the 9th century, and its inscriptions go back to 885 AD. One, from the reign of Parantaka I in 911, records a gift of gold jewellery whose income was to pay for desilting the temple tank and keeping a lamp burning. The name means the one who formed himself: legend says that when the Chola queen Kanthimathi, a devotee of Shiva, was too heavily pregnant to climb to her usual hill temple, Shiva appeared to her here as a lingam and blessed her with a safe delivery.

The temple is small, with a single enclosure, a two-tiered vimana and no gopuram, in the manner of early Chola temples. The original inscribed walls survive, while the surrounding structures are recent. The east-facing lingam is of granite, and the consort Kunkumavalli has a north-facing shrine. A bangle festival in the month of Thai recalls the queen's story.