Category:Venganallur Temple

Venganallur Temple 

An 11th to 12th century Shiva temple in Kerala
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Instance of	Hindu temple
Location	Thrissur district, Kerala, India
10° 42′ 11.8″ N, 76° 20′ 15″ E
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The Tiruvembilappan temple of Venganallur in Trichur district is an 11th to 12th century Hindu temple with a circular floor plan. It is notable for how the temple's vimana and sanctum was built from a mix granite, laterite and wood. Additionally it illustrates a Kerala temple that satisfies both a sandhara vimana and a sarvatobhadra rules of historic Sanskrit texts on Hindu temple architecture.

The Venganallur temple has a conical roof on top of the circular shrine. In front is a namaskara-mandapa. The temple faces east and has four entrances aligned with the four cardinal directions. The eastern entrance is primary and has a torana-style gateway (some refer it as gopuram). Granite is found in sopana, adhishthana and pranala elements. The bhiti is made of laterite blocks. The sanctum too uses a mix of granite and laterite. A spacious circumambulation passage encircles the square floor plan sanctum, and this passage has two rows of wooden pillars. The outer row has twenty pillars, while the inner row has twelve pillars. The outer walls, the rows of pillars and the sanctum are all co-axial and perfectly aligned.

The namaskara mandapa has wooden pillars and ceiling section with beautiful Hindu artwork. On top is a tiled pyramidal roof. A nalambalam surrounds the temple. This temple has a 12th century inscription that implies that this temple was already in existence by late 11th or early 12th century.