The sacred geography of the Indic world — every site mapped, dated, storied, and cited.
3031sites15countries4traditions30centuries
High medieval · Hindu · India
Tiruvaneshwar Temple
Ranganathapuram, Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu · 10.8366°, 78.9349°
Shiva as Tiruvaneshwar (Gajaranyeswarar / Karivananathar), consort Kamakshi AmbalUndeterminedDravidian
Sacred since
1000 CE
first attestation / structure
Standing structure
dating unrecorded
Undetermined
History & significance
A Shiva temple at Ranganathapuram in the Thiruvaiyaru taluk of Thanjavur district, where the deity carries the elephant-forest names Gajaranyeswarar and Karivananathar. The Kanchi Kamakoti pontiff Chandrashekharendra Saraswati is recorded to have stayed a week here in meditation.