Trifter

 A lot of people who travel to Chennai would have visited this beach. However, most of the people including the locals are not aware of the ancient temple located in this village.

If you travel around 300 meters from Kovalam beach towards East Coast Road, you can find the small ancient temple of Lord Kailasanathar (Shiva). It is slightly difficult to locate this temple as even locals of Kovalam village do not seem to have much idea about this temple. One way to locate this temple is look for the architecturally beautiful but old tower when you move towards ECR. 

Kailasanathar temple is very small. Lord Kailasanathar (Shiva) is the main deity of this temple. The goddess Kamalavalli has a separate shrine. There are other idols such as Ganesha and Subramanya with his consorts Valli-Devasena in this temple. On the corridor of the temple, you can find the 13th century AD idols of Surya (Sun God), Kali, Bhairav and Vishnu with Bhooma Devi (Earth Goddess).

Kailasanathar temple was believed to be built as a brick temple during 8th century AD, and it was rebuilt as stone temple during 12th century AD. The current idols in the temple are believed to be of the period 13th century AD. The idols in the outside corridor and the temple tower are extremely beautiful.

If you happen to go to Kovalam, it doesn’t matter whether you visit the beach or not. You should definitely visit this beautiful ancient temple. This is unfortunate that such an architectural marvelous remains unknown to the outside world – even to the locals.

Happy traveling.