Hi Friends, Next in line of the early Chola temples is a Shiva temple at Panangudi. I am not very sure why these temples are put under early Chola architecture classification, probably only based upon their simple architecture and small structure. As there are no foundation inscriptions so dating these is very tough. Also it is very possible that these temple were not constructed under a royal order so their structure is simple and kept small due to constraints of funds etc. There is a Vishnu temple in this village however I missed it as I did not have prior information of that temple.
In some prior studies, Panagudi Agastyeswara, Visalur Margapurisvara, Kaliyapatti and Viral Bhumisvara are all termed Muttaraiyar temples
The conclusion is predominantly based on architectural features of the temples not epigraphy.
These are the first generation of Muttaraiyar temples to be built.
The Second generation is Senthalai Sundareswara, Niyamam Iravatheswara and the pinnacle Vijayalaya Choleswara. Some include Nangawaram Sundarswara - an irrukkuvel/muttaraiyar combination - in this group.
Lost temples of Muttaraiyas include a Jain temple at senthalai, a Makali temple at Vallam and another Makali temple at Niyamam.
Interestingly, all of the first generation Shiva temples have / had ashtaparivara sub-shrines.
Hi Gokul sir, That study, assigning these temples to Muttaraiyar, might be correct. Koranganatha temple at Srinivasanallur has a donative record of Aditya I in his 24th regnal year (895 CE), the time when he was taking over the Pallava territories. This suggests that the temple at Srinivasanallur was already constructed by this time and most probable candidates for this construction is Muttaraiya-s.
Koranganatha is built with a developed architecture in comparison to Panangudi, Visalur, Kaliyapatti etc which further suggests that these other small temples would have been dated before Koranganatha. Kodumbalur and Narthamalai are other sites which were previously thought of the Cholas however later when foundation inscriptions were found these were assigned to Irukkuvel and Muttaraiya respectively.
However as I stated earlier, without foundation inscriptions, it is very hard to say anything. May you please let me know, if you remember, the name of the book where this Muttaraiya theory is talked about.