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Suchindram Thanumalayan Temple

Suchindram, Kanyakumari District, Tamil Nadu Shaiva–Vaishnava tradition

Served from the stored corpus. Last scan Sep 28, 2026. Next scan Oct 28, 2026.

“Sthanu, Mal, and Ayan — Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma — named together in one shrine.”
Editorial summary of the published name. Not an inscription.

Photograph

Stored photograph. The earliest frame in this record is January 1989.

2 of 5

Close color photograph of the white, densely sculpted upper storeys of the Suchindram temple gopuram against a blue sky.

Sculpted eastern gopuram

Close view of the white sculpted tower, its finials, and the figures along the sides.

  1. January 1989 Street, gopuram, and temple car
  2. 30 December 2006 Sculpted eastern gopuram
  3. 18 March 2007 Eastern gopuram and entrance
  4. 7 September 2008 Temple tank and water mandapa
  5. 3 January 2021 Tank, mandapa, and gopuram

30 December 2006 Vinayaraj, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Source and license

View photograph at full size

Interpreted architectural view

East elevation, read from the photograph and published descriptions.

Interpreted east elevation of Suchindram Thanumalayan Temple The tower follows the photographs. The tank is visible in the 2008 and 2021 photographs. Halls are placed from published descriptions. The wide forecourt is interpretive. Rajagopuram Mandapa, from descriptions Entrance, date unknown Forecourt, interpretive Tank, in the 2008 and 2021 photographs
Verified from photograph High confidence for what is visible Verified from measured drawing High confidence where a survey is stored Document-supported Medium confidence Interpretive reconstruction Arrangement based on evidence Known later addition Dated by a cited source Unknown or insufficient evidence Shown so the gap stays visible
Rajagopuram Verified from photograph · High confidence The sculpted eastern tower is the dominant mass in the 2007 photograph. Published accounts disagree on the number of storeys and the height. The photograph supports the tower’s presence, not a single measurement. Entrance buildings Unknown or insufficient evidence · Medium confidence A gateway and lower buildings, including a yellow roof, stand in front of the tower in the 2007 photograph. Their construction date is not established. Mandapa frontage Document-supported · Medium confidence Published descriptions place colonnaded halls and the Alankara Mandapa within the complex. They are not readable in the stored photograph, so the elevation draws them as document-supported geometry. Musical pillars Document-supported · Medium confidence Sources describe four musical pillar groups in the Alankara Mandapa, carved so that they sound when struck. The reported count of the smaller pillars is not the same in every account. Hanuman figure Document-supported · Medium confidence A large Hanuman is a noted feature of the complex. Published heights differ: over 16 feet, 18 feet, and 22 feet all appear in secondary descriptions. No photograph of it is stored here. Temple tank Verified from photograph · High confidence The 2008 and 2021 photographs show the tank and a mandapa standing in the water. The 1989 and 2007 frames do not include it. The edge treatment is visible in those later photographs; the date of the concrete edging is still not established. Forecourt Interpretive reconstruction · Not established The wide open forecourt drawn on the elevation is an interpretive arrangement. The 2007 frame is too close to verify that court, and no older photograph is held. Outer wall Interpretive reconstruction · Not established A compound wall is assumed from the way the complex is described, but this photograph does not show its full line. It is not marked as photo-verified.