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Chidambaram, Cuddalore district, Tamil Nadu · 11.3994°, 79.6933°
A Divya Desam to Vishnu that shares its precinct with the Nataraja temple at Chidambaram — one of only two of the 108 Divya Desams housed inside a Shiva temple complex. Largely of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries with later additions, the shrine was reinstated by Krishnappa Nayak in the 1560s and is sung in the Naalayira Divya Prabandham.
What follows is the temple’s own traditional account, transmitted through liturgy and local memory. It is recorded here as tradition, not as attested history.
The site is linked to the contest in which Shiva and Parvati sought to settle which of them was the better dancer, Shiva prevailing at Tillai with the urdhvatandava pose.
coordinates: wikipedia-2026-08-27 · sources retrieved 2026-08-26 · dynasty page: Chola / Pandya / Vijayanagara Nayak
Answers only from cited records
Opening the line…