The Adi Kumbeswarar Temple is the oldest and most important Shiva temple in Kumbakonam, dating from the Chola period and significantly extended under the Nayaks in the sixteenth century. The presiding deity is an unusual lingam said to have been moulded by Shiva himself from the cosmic pot — the kumbam — from which the town takes its name.
The temple's masterwork is the navaratri mandapam, a sixteenth-century pillared hall with 27 stars and 12 zodiac signs carved into a single slab of stone in the ceiling. The gopuram tower at the eastern entrance, eleven storeys high, dominates the surrounding streets. The complex is laid out as a long axial sequence of courtyards — a good place to learn how a major South Indian temple actually works on a busy festival morning.