The Nataraja Temple in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, is dedicated to Shiva as Nataraja, the lord of dance. A Shiva shrine existed here when the town was called Thillai, and the earliest verifiable temple inscriptions date to Aditya Chola I in the early tenth century. Parantaka Chola I covered the Chit Sabha, the central hall, in gold.
The complex covers about 40 acres (16 hectares) and has four concentric courtyards and nine gateway towers. The four largest towers face the cardinal directions. Each is about 140 feet (42.7 meters) high and seven stories tall, and these were built between about 1150 and 1300. The eastern tower shows the 108 dance postures of the Natya Shastra in its niches. The Raja Sabha is a thousand-pillared hall.
The temple was plundered in the fourteenth century and rebuilt under the Vijayanagara and Nayaka rulers. Hereditary trustees called Dikshitars manage it today.
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