Vijayalaya Choleeswaram

Vijayalaya Choleeswaram stands on the rocky hill of Narthamalai in Pudukkottai district and is counted among the oldest stone temples in South India. Despite its name, it was originally built around 862 by the Muttaraiyar chief Sattan Paliyili, a Pallava feudatory; its link with the Chola king Vijayalaya is much debated. Soon after it was finished, rain and lightning damaged it, and a man named Tennavan Tamiladirayan restored it. The town's old name, Nagaratharmalai, recalls the Nagarathar merchants of the region. The temple is protected by the Archaeological Survey of India.

The Shiva shrine faces west, its plain-walled sanctum reached through a pillared hall and guarded by doorkeepers, under a four-storey tower with a rounded top; six of eight smaller shrines around it survive. Nearby, a rock-cut cave holds twelve life-size figures of Vishnu, representing twelve of his twenty-four names, and its base is carved with yalis and elephants. The Aluruttimalai Jain caves of the 8th century are elsewhere on the hill.