Temple of Paintings - Chitra Sabha Temple, Courtallam

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Courtallam is a small town near the ancient city named Tirunelveli in South India. It is an important tourist site due to its number of waterfalls. Besides the waterfalls, it also has an ancient temple dedicated to Lord Shiva (Kutralanathar). In addition to that, there is another small temple which is generally not visited by tourists. The name of that small temple is Chitra Sabha. The temple's highlight is that you cannot find an icon here. The temple is full of mural paintings. Having mural paintings is not a rare scene in South Indian ancient temples. However, the Chitra Sabha temple has only mural paintings and no icons. The paintings are being worshipped in this temple.


There are five adobes of Lord Nataraja (Shiva in the dancing posture is called Nataraja), where he performed his cosmic dance. One of those five adobes is Courtallam Chitra Sabha. Here, the primary deity Nataraja is in the form of illustration. Besides this, there are many paintings depicting various deities and scenes from Puranas. 

The Chitra Sabha temple of Nataraj is definitely a rare temple you shouldn't miss visiting.

Happy travelling.





Chitra Sabha Temple, Courtallam


Paintings in Chitra Sabha Temple, Courtallam

Visit my site, krishnakumartk.com, to know more about the travel guides and other books that I have written.
Location: Courtallam, Tamil Nadu, India

Comments

  1. VijayWednesday, September 08, 2010

    Very nice and rare post. Would you have more photos of the paintings and willing to share

    rgds
    vj
    www.poetryinstone.in

    ReplyDelete
  2. KajnasFriday, October 25, 2013

    It has just been renovated and the paintings redecorated with natural colours (no artificial colours used). The result is amazing and the whole place looks splendid. I have never seen anything like this before. Its a must visit place. I found Chitra Sabha to be more blissful than bathing in the Kutralam falls.

    The place is behind the main falls.

    ReplyDelete

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