Perur Pateeswarar Temple

An old Shiva temple standing directly on the Siruvani road in from Coimbatore, sung about in Sangam-era Tamil poetry and attributed by tradition to the Chola king Karikala, then extended in turn by Pandya, Hoysala, Vijayanagara and Madurai Nayak rulers. Its centrepiece is the Kanaka Sabha, the golden hall raised in the 17th century: monolithic pillars carved with Shiva in his many forms, ceilings worked as linked chains of stone, and a gold-plated Nataraja. There is no entry fee. Twenty kilometres from the ashram and on the way in, so it costs almost no extra time.

Stone chains carved into the ceiling and a gold Nataraja, right on the road in