page_title: Tenavaram temple
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: Tenavaram temple / History / Early history
caption_attribution_description: English: Vadakkumnathan Temple's Thekke Gopura Vathil
context_page_description: Tenavaram temple was a historic Hindu temple complex situated in the port town Tenavaram, Tevanthurai, Matara near Galle, Southern Province, Sri Lanka. Its primary deity was a Hindu god Tenavarai Nayanar and at its zenith was one of the most celebrated Hindu temple complexes of the island, containing eight major kovil shrines to a thousand deity statues of stone and bronze and two major shrines to Vishnu and Shiva. Administration and maintenance was conducted by residing Hindu Tamil merchants during Tenavaram's time as a popular pilgrimage destination and famed emporium employing over five hundred devadasis.
  The complex, bordered by a large quadrangle cloister, was a collection of several historic Hindu Kovil shrines, with its principle shrine designed in the Kerala and Pallava style of Dravidian architecture. The central temple dedicated to Vishnu known as Upulvan to the Sinhalese was the most prestigious and biggest, popular amongst its large Tamil population, pilgrims and benefactors of other faiths such as Buddhism, kings and artisans.
context_section_description: A map drawn by early Greek cartographers reveals the existence of a Hindu temple at the same location along the southern coast. Ptolemy in 98 CE marks the town as "Dagana" or "Dana" (Sacra Luna), a place "sacred to the moon," which geographers note corresponds to Tenavaram. In this temple the principal deity was known as "Chandra Maul Eshwaran". On the forehead of the deity was a large precious stone shaped like a moon crescent. Ancient Tamil texts such as the  Yalpana Vaipava Malai call the town Theivanthurai (God's Port) and the deity's name Santhira Segaram or "Lord Shiva, wearer of moon on his head". This shrine became known as the Naga-Risa Nila Kovil of Tenavaram by the medieval period, and as "Tondeswaram", one of the five ancient Ishwarams of Shiva in the region.
caption: The famous Vadakkunnathan Temple of Thrissur, Kerala. Tenavaram shared strong structurally similar gopurams to this multi-shrine ancient Shiva complex constructed in the Dravidian Kerala style of architecture.
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