Its a small village about 20 kms from Madurai.kunnathur this has a good natural background with trees and and lakes nearby it.The village it was once called as kundrathur before that it was named as "thirukavalur".The village history dates back to 1000 yrs but there is no proof but people believe in it.The village has a group of shivalingams in the nearby locality there are ashtalingam(8lingams) in the village namely 1)udayagiri(in malai kovil) 2)ashtagiri(in malai kovil) 3)ulaganadhar(in malai kovil) 4)veerabhadra sivan (moola bala sivam in malai kovil ) 5)oorkavalar(near beds of the pond) 6)thiruneelakandeshwarar(near to malai kovil) 7)vairavan(on the beds of the lake) 8)eeswaran(in kunnathur village) This is a speciality to the village ..no other village or city in india has 8lingams in one locality.the hindu god moodevi has no statue anywhere in india but kunnathur village (in malai kovil) had the statue till 1960 ,later the indian archaeological department took the statue for to safeguard it in the museum .

This a very old temple and its history dates back to 2 nd century B.C .There are caves like garbha grahas carved by extraordinary men with excellent art. They have carved a shivlingam inside it. Udayagiriswarar and Asthagiriswarar cave temples in kunnathur, . It has two caves one is udayagiri(rising sun) and other is ashtagiri(sunset).The sun rays fall on the shivlingam everyday morning and evening on the udayagiri and ashtagiri respectively.Jain beds with Brahmi inscriptions at top of the cave temple.