this is an interesting article from "the hindu" of the past. a temple we must visit.
"a cluster temples in Pulipparakkoil, about two kilometres from the Patalam railway station, near Chengalpattu. Said to belong to the reign of Sadaiyavarman Sundara Pandya and Rajanarayana Sambuvarayan, the temples in the area one each of Vishnu, Siva, Subramanya and Thiruvothamman had been in existence for well over 700 years"
Palar river, which takes a turn towards the south and flows near the temple as "Dakshina Pravahini", is the holy water source and the "Sthala Vriksham" is "Vilvam".
Originally known as "Vada Ponnambalam" to differentiate it from "Ponnambalam" or "Kanagasabai" as Chidambaram.
The inscriptions in the temple, give details about the existence of a big mandapam with Vijayanagar architecture, a separate shrine for the Utsavar idol, Nataraja. They also speak about the improvements carried out by Sundara Pandya, who visited the temple after worshipping Lord Nataraja in Chidambaram.
another inscription says that Rajanarayana Sambuvarayan presented to the temple a portion of the income he got from what is known as "Madavalagam" tax.
Just one-and-a-half km away is the temple dedicated to Lord Varadaraja in the place known as Arasarkoil.the Mukhamandapam in the Thayar shrine is an architectural marvel .One of the pillars contains a small hole and a stick inserted comes out divided into four and eight pieces on the other side reportedly.
seems saint vyagrapaadar was very active in this area. a group of members including swetha, sathish, muruganandam and the now silent nadarajan srinivasan visited the pulipakkam hill next to chingelpet ( the photos are in a folder called chingelpet kalvettu). any place where vygrapadar did penance( including chidambaram) are called puliyur because he was endowed with tiger feet( or nails)
vallam caves The caves, which lie two kilometres east of Chinglepet town and are reached via a dusty winding pathway off TKM (Thirukazhukundram) Road, are carved out of giant rocks that sit atop an arid hill.
Those who worked for King Mahendravarman-I once used the twisting track that leads to them. The caves, which now are a place of worship, contain a Tamil inscription that sheds some light on this Pallava king. Dating between 610 and 675 AD, this is said to very old Tamil inscriptions.
There are three caves in all, all of them neatly scooped out from the rocks and watched over by fierce-looking dwarapalakas (guards); the main cave, which is bigger than the others, is decorated with well- proportioned stone columns, one of which contains the old inscription.
The history
Archaeologists M. Lockwood and Gift Siromoney did some pioneering work on the history of the caves, which they visited over three decades ago.