The Ramaswamy Temple is one of the more colourful of Kumbakonam's temples, dedicated to Rama and unusual for showing him enthroned with Sita, Lakshmana, and his brothers — a tableau rather than a standing figure. It was built in the seventeenth century by the Nayak rulers of Thanjavur.
The temple's distinctive feature is its mandapam of 219 sculpted pillars, each carved with scenes from the Ramayana, and the painted ceiling of the inner hall, with episodes from the epic spread above the worshippers. A series of relief panels around the outer walls continues the narrative. For a non-specialist visitor, this temple is among the easier to read as a story in stone.