Thillai Nataraja Temple, Chidambaram

The Thillai Nataraja temple in Chidambaram is dedicated to Shiva as Nataraja, lord of the dance. A Shiva shrine stood here when the town was still called Thillai, and the temple is praised in the 7th-century Tevaram hymns. Tamil Shaivas simply call it Kovil, the temple. It is the only Shiva temple counted among both the Pancha Sabha, the five dance halls, and the Pancha Bhuta, the five elements.

The Cholas revered Nataraja as their family deity and are said to have been crowned here; copper plates credit Parantaka Chola I with the golden roof over the shrine. The temple was rebuilt in the 10th century, and most of the present fabric belongs to around 1200, from the late 12th century into the early 13th. Its walls show all 108 karanas, the dance postures of the Natya Shastra that underpin Bharatanatyam, and the complex also holds the earliest known goddess temple in south India.