Famous Temples in India

Architecture

Sri Mogileswara Swamy temple main deity of Lord Shiva was first found by Mogilliappa (a farmer) who later placed it under a Mogili tree, and started worshipping it. That’s why this temple was named as Mogileeswara Temple. The temple is facing towards East direction and constructed in Chola style of Architecture.

This temple has three Gopurams. The temple tower was constructed with grate sculpture work. The superstructure of the gopura is built with brick and mortar in four diminishing tiers with kuta, sala and panjara elements. The temple has a Dhwaja Stambham. The square garbhagriha houses linga on a vedi. The vimana which rises above the garbhagriha contains a single tala with the series kuta, panjara, sala, panjara and kuta. Above this ekatala, is the phalaka containing nandis in the four corners.

There are niches on the outer walls of the garbhagriha and antarala. The images in these niches are Ganapati and Dakshinamurti on the south, Vishnu on the west, Brahma and Durga on the north. Over the niches makaratorana is absent. Among the two inscriptions found in the temple, the earliest-belong to the 6th year of Rajaraja I (A.D. 991). In this record, the temple is referred to as Tirumaniyural Nayanar and the village as Mulibil. The other record belongs to the Vijayanagara king Vira Harihararaya. The portrait sculptures on the pillars in the mukhamandapa are good specimens of the folk art of the period. The main entrance of the mukhamandapa is in the east with a doorway. There are two dwarapalakas flanking the entrance of the mukhamandapa. The mandapa contains four pillars with Chola capitals. The pillar in the North-east corner has on its middle square two figures, a male and a female standing in anjali pose. The pradakshina surrounding the garbhagriha, antarala and mukhamandapa contain pillars with Chola capitals.

There is Pushkarini in the premises of the Sri Mogileswara Swamy temple with perennial waters flowing from the mouth of Nandi, the sacred bull, which is a good source of drinking water for the public irrespective of the seasons. The temple tank is situated to the south of the main shrine. The tank is surrounded on the south and west by a pillared verandah.