Places to Visit in Uthiramerur

Uthiramerur, a temple town about 35 km south of Kanchipuram, is world-famous for 10th-century Chola inscriptions that record the village assembly's 'kudavolai' (pot-ticket) election system - one of history's earliest documented examples of local self-government. The town's Pallava-origin Vishnu temples, expanded by the Cholas, carry these epigraphs; the celebrated sabha-election inscriptions of Parantaka Chola I are engraved on the enclosure walls of the Vaikunta Perumal temple here, alongside the well-known Sundaravarada Perumal (Vishnu) temple.

A Vishnu temple in Uthiramerur famous for the celebrated 10th-century Chola inscriptions carved on its mandapa walls during the reign of Parantaka I (c. 921 CE). These inscriptions record the Kudavolai system, a lottery-based method of electing village assembly (sabha) committees, among the world's earliest documented evidence of local self-governance. The site is a landmark in the study of ancient Indian democracy.

An old Shiva temple in the historic Chola village of Uthiramerur that received endowments from the Vijayanagara emperor Krishnadevaraya (1509-1529). The Lord is worshipped as Kailasanathar. It complements the town's Vaikunta Perumal and Sundaravarada Perumal temples in preserving the layered Pallava, Chola and Vijayanagara heritage of Uthiramerur.

A Vishnu temple in central Kanchipuram counted among the 108 Divya Desams (Tiru Ooragam), famous for its towering image of Vishnu as Trivikrama/Ulagalantha, 'he who measured the worlds,' with one leg raised. Temple tradition links the form to the Vamana avatar and the legend of King Mahabali, and the complex uniquely enshrines several Divya Desam shrines within one precinct.

A national memorial built at the exact spot in Sriperumbudur where former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in a suicide bombing on 21 May 1991. The landscaped complex features a granite pillar, a sculpted lotus and inscriptions of his words, and serves as a place of national remembrance. It has become a significant historical stop in the town.

A historic Digambara Jain temple at Tiruparuttikunram (Jina Kanchi), a short trip southwest of Kanchipuram, dedicated to Trilokyanatha with shrines to Tirthankaras including Vardhamana (Mahavira), Rishabhanatha and Chandraprabha. It is a protected archaeological monument famed for its Vijayanagara-era painted ceiling panels and its Sangeetha Mandapam.

A realistic one-day plan for Kanchipuram — Kailasanathar, Ekambareswarar, Kamakshi Amman, Varadharaja and Vaikunta Perumal, and the city’s famous silk, in the order that beats the crowds.

Pair the granite fort and gilded temple of Vellore with the ancient temple town of Kanchipuram on an easy two-day loop from Chennai or Bengaluru.

A Divya Desam dedicated to Vishnu as Pavala Vannar, so named for the coral-red hue of the presiding deity. Tradition holds that the twin Ashvin physicians of the gods worshipped here. It is glorified in the Naalayira Divya Prabandham and forms part of the cluster of Vishnu Divya Desams that make Kanchipuram a major Srivaishnava pilgrimage centre.