vallam

HISTORICAL BACKGROUNDS :

The Pallava period Rock-cut temples namely Sri Karivartharaja Perumal Temple, Siva Temple and Sri Vedhandheeswarar Cave Temple in Vallam village which is 3 km from Chengalpattu Taluk, Kanchipuram District, are declared as protected Monument of State Department Archaeology as per GO (Ms)No.263, Tourism, Culture and Religious Endowments (MA2) Department, dated 31.10.2016. 

Vallam is small settlement near Chengalpattu where three rock-cut shrines  are excavated in a hillock, running north to south, Cave Temple at Vallam.On the eastern face of the hill are carved three rock-cut shrines.  Two caves are on same boulder one above the other cave, while the third is located little north of the previous one.

This is the uppermost rock of this hill.   It has been closed on all sides with iron grills as the cave is still in use as a live temple.  The front facade of the cave is supported in two  pillars and two pilasters.  This arrangement divides the cave into three openings as seen in many earlier caves of seen as Mandagapattu, Dalavanur, Kuranganilmuttam, Mahendravadi, Mamandur Cave -I and Seeyamangalam.  Both pillars and pilasters are differentiate into cubical top and bottom (saduram) and octagonal middle part (kattu).  There are two inscription on the front top cubical faces of the pillars.  The corbels are curved, however curve is not very prominent so this looks like in angular profile.  As also seen in other caves of the same period, this cave also has two rows of pillars and pilasters, hence partitioning this into ardha-mandapa and mukha-mandapa.  There are two small niches, beyond the pilasters of the front row.  These niches are not aligned with cave, so it looks that these were excavated later after excavation of the cave.