Subramanya Temple – The Oldest temple in TamilNadu

After the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami had subsided, archaeologists discovered rock inscriptions which had been exposed by the tsunami waves close to the hamlet of Saluvankuppam, near the UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site of Mahabalipuram. The Subramanya Temple at Saluvankuppam, Tamilnadu, is a shrine dedicated to the Hindu deity Murugan. The inscriptions by the Rashtrakuta king Krishna III and the Chola kings and Kulothunga Chola spoke of a Subrahmanya Temple at Thiruvizhchil (the present day Saluvanakuppam). S. Rajavelu, epigraphist with the Archaelogical Survey of India (ASI), identified a nearby mound as the site of the temple.

The original temple made of brick and dedicated to Muruga was built during the Sangam era (200 BCE to 300 CE). This temple was destroyed and the Pallava kings rebuilt it as a granite temple during 800 – 900 CE. This temple was destroyed as well. What is discovered now is remains of that temple. G. Thirumoorthy, ASI Assistant Archaeologist, believed that the shrine could be the oldest Subrahmanya temple to be excavated in Tamil Nadu. There were speculations on whether the temple could be one of the “Seven Pagodas”.

Archaeologists believe that the shrine, unearthed in 2005, consists of two layers: a brick temple constructed during the Sangam Period (the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD) and a granite Pallava temple dating from the 8th century AD and constructed on top of the brick shrine.

This proved conclusively that the temple was constructed before the 6th or 7th century AD when the shilpa shastras, the canonical texts of temple architecture, were written. Estimates of the age of the brick shrine range from 1700 to 2200 years. Archaeologists believe that the brick shrine was destroyed either by a cyclone or a tsunami which took place 2,200 years ago.