Vedapuriswarar Temple, Thiruvedhikudi

Vedapuriswarar Temple, also called Vazhaimadunathar Temple, stands at Thiruvedhikudi near Tiruvaiyaru, on the Kudamurutti river by the Thiruvaiyaru–Thanjavur road. It is a Paadal Petra Sthalam: Sambandar and Appar each sang two padigams to the deity. Legend says the Vedas themselves worshipped Shiva here, and that Brahma, called Vedhi in Tamil, did so too, which gave the village its name. Shiva is also believed to have appeared from a plantain tree, hence the name Vazhaimadunathar.

It is reckoned the earliest of all Chola temples; its oldest masonry dates to the 9th century, with later additions up to the Thanjavur Nayaks. A three-tiered rajagopuram leads to the square sanctum, and the mahamandapa holds Vedha Vinayagar, shown listening to Shiva recite the four Vedas. The temple takes part in the Saptha Sthanam festival of glass palanquins at Tiruvaiyaru each April. Its Nataraja bronze, believed stolen some time after 1959, has been traced by the Tamil Nadu police to the Asia Society Museum in New York.