Ramalingeswarar Shenbagaramanallur

Ramalingeswarar Shenbagaramanallur is a large east-facing temple situated in 2 Prakarams. The entrance is through a large stone gateway mandapam which has some beautiful carvings on it. Outside this gateway are a small mandapam and a temple tank. The outer prakaram is large and has a large Nataraja mandapam on the north side. The idol of Lord Nataraja is a large and beautiful one. The mandapam has a pillared section before the shrine. Nataraja is seen with his consort Sivakami Amman here. The inner Prakaram is entered through a doorway. This prakaram is a completely covered one. A Maha Mandapam is common to both the sanctum sanctorum and the south-facing shrine of the goddess. Both have separate Ardha Mandapams. There are many beautiful pillars in the mandapams. One behind the sanctum of the lord is of particular interest. If you blow on the ears of the Yaali you get a different note on each side. One is said to resemble a conch being blown. As per Tamiraparani Mahatmayam (to be clarified) this is considered as one of the Pancha (five) Aasana Sthalams, the others being Sathyavageeswarar (Kalakkad), Nageswarar (Nanguneri), Manonmaneeswarar (Vijayaranyam), and Vazhudeeswarar (Erawadi).