Kapaleeshwarar Temple

Kapaleeshwarar Temple anchors Chennai's Mylapore quarter, its present Vijayanagara-period structure a rebuilding of an earlier temple believed to have stood nearer the coast until Portuguese destruction in the sixteenth century relocated it inland. The temple's mythology, in which Parvati worships Shiva in the form of a peacock (mayil), gives Mylapore its name and is depicted in temple reliefs. Its painted gopuram, dense with Vijayanagara-era stucco figuration, and its temple tank used for the annual float festival, make it a compact but complete example of Tamil temple-town design within a dense modern city. As one of the oldest working temples in Chennai proper, it offers visitors a Dravida temple experience without travelling beyond the city, useful as an introductory stop before the Chola and Pallava heartland further south.