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Nellaiappar Temple is about 1,300 years old though like many temples in the South, later dynasties have added to it in an effort to leave their imprint on the shrine and in the history books. By surpassing the original creation, the later rulers hoped to take ownership of, or the credit for, the entire temple. Within the Nellaiappar Temple is also a shrine to Kanthimathi, the consort. Technically, this used to be a separate temple but was merged into one large complex by Thiru Vadamalaiappa Pillaiyan in 1647 when he built the chain mantapam.The temple is actually quite big - some 14 acres, if I remember correctly. Tirunelveli is also one of the pancha sabhai, and has the Tamira Sabha. The name derives from the copper - taamirai - exterior roof of the sabha. The interior side of the roof has exquisite wood carvings but unfortunately, the sabha was locked when we were there and we could only peer in from the door. The condition of the wood makes me think the roof is no more than five centuries old but I could be mistaken and the builders may have coated the wood with some preservative. The sabha itself, however, is probably older than the roof which could easily be replaced or redone by later rulers.Nellaiappar Temple also has musical pillars - in the Mani mantapam, the musical pillars were arranged such that one central pillar had several smaller pillars of varying circumference around it; there were several such "core pillars" and the amazing thing about it all is that they were all carved out of one single block of stone!Nellaiappar happens to be one of the 275 paadal petra sthalam. Basically, it is one of the Shiva temples named by the Nayanars in their hymns and poetry in praise of Lord Shiva in the twelve-volume Tirumurai. The overwhelming majority of these 275 paadal petra sthalam are in Tamil Nadu, a few in South India outside of Tamil Nadu, three in the north (Gowri Kund, Kedarnath, Kailash), and one in Nepal.The main shrine of Tirunelveli has a shivalingam, obviously, but right next to it is a shrine to Vishnu, known as Nellai Govindan. It shows Vishnu reclining on and trying to pacify Shesha just like at Thirumayam. The temple has several shrines to various forms of Shiva - Bhikshatanamurthi, Dakshinamurthi, Nataraja, Chandikeshwara, and Thirumoolanathar. Of course, shrines to Shiva's two sons, Ganesha and Shanmuga, are also present. One interesting shrine I noticed was a two-piece Ravana Anugraha shrine. As you approach, you see Ravana lifting Kailasa; right next to the shrine is a flight of stairs that takes you to a shrine directly above Ravana which holds Shiva pressing down on the mountain with his toe. Needless to mention, there are shrines to the sapta rishis, the Nayanars, the navagrahas, the sapta maatrikas, ashta Lakshmis, and Durga around the complex.I have already mentioned the Tamira Sabha but the intricate work in wood you see on the interior roof of the sabha is also visible at the entry to Nellaiappar Temple. On the doorway, as you enter, the arches are covered with tiny wooden figurines. Interestingly, some of these seem to have an erotic theme that I have only seen at Khajuraho so far.There are several sculptures outside the main shrine, showing Veerabhadra, Arjuna, Bheema, and others that seem to be from the Nayaka period. I found them exquisite, but not quite 'alive' as some of the salabhanjika at Belur or Ellora. However, the figurines at Nellaiappar seemed to be done in granite, much harder to manipulate than soapstone as the Pallavas found out in Mahabalipuram.