Lakshmi Narayana Temple Pratishta

[Lakshmi Srinivas]

Appar Swami is held to be contemporanoeus with Mahendra Pallava. Campantar
is not said to pre date him.

Mahendra Pallava has had some inscriptions carved which show that he was
not only an ardent Saiva but also a very knowledgeable one. (Cf R
Nagaswamy's Sivabhakti). Most early Siva temples seem to date from around
his time. In the Chola area around the same time, a Kocengkanan is said to
have built 70 temples for Siva. In addition he built some Vishnu temples.
Hence Tirumangaiyazvar while visiting a Vishnu temple that he built
celebrates him as 'one who built 70 beautiful multistoried temples for the
8 armed Isvara'. The Pandya area, the cultural center of Tamil land, has
hardly any Siva temples of antiquity. So much incidentally for all that
stuff about Siva as the giver of Tamil grammar.

More importantly, the early Tamil poems (Ten Songs and Eight Anthologies)
as well as the Paripatal etc do not refer to any Saiva temples which we
know from Appar Swami's hymns. Nor are there any inscriptions which
indicate the presence of such temples.

This may not be conclusive evidence as new research may turn up some
temples to Siva.

Hope this helps,

Lakshmi Srinivas