Nachiyar Koil - Thirunarayur - Kal Garudan
Nachiyar koil is one of the main divya desams for lord Perumal, out of 108, this is considered as 14th divya desams for Lord Vishnu / Perumal. The significance of this temple is Nachiyar Thaiyar gets preference first before Perumal which is very rare and unique in divya desam temples of lord Perumal.
Temple is located on the outskirts of Kumbakonam in a place called Thirunarayur, which has now become more of Nachiyar Koil. Temple name is Sri Srinivasa Perumal koil, however it is more known as Nachiyar Koil or Kal Garudan Koil.
Legend goes like Sage Medhavi who lived in this place prayed to Maha Vishnu to have Mahalakshmi as his daughter, Based on his prayers, he found a beautiful girl child under vanjula tree and named her as Vanjulavalli and brought her up. Lord Vishnu took Garuda's help to fly in search of Mahalakshmi, Garuda was able to locate Mahalakshmi at Sage Medhavi's house and indicated the same to Lord Vishnu, Lord Vishnu took five forms and visited Medhavi's house and he was served with food by Vajulavalli, after food, when Vanjulavalli was pouring water to wash hands, Lord Vishnu held her hands, when she cried for help, Sage MEdhavi came there and he saw all five forms of Vishnu become one and Lord Vishnu gave him his darshan and asked vanjulavalli to get married to him. Sage agreed to this and asked for boon that his daughter should get preference in this place and that tradition is still being held. Any neivedyam goes to Lord Nachiyar first and then to Lord Srinivasa.
Mulavar has multiple names as Sri Vasudevan, Paripuranan, Nambi , Srinivasan, Vanjulavalli, Nachiyar. Other mulavars include Sri Prathubnan, Sri Langarshnan, Sri Purushothaman, Sri Brahma and Sri Anirudhan. All these forms together as mulavar and they are seen in marriage form.
Kal Garudan which is another famous in this temple has been located just outside mulavar sanidhanam. Since Lord Garudan helped Vishnu to locate this place of Mahalakshmi, Lord gave a boon that he will get equal prefernce in this temple. The legend goes that the sculpture was frustrated to make this Garudan which was done using Saligramam, as the Garuda kept flying away, he threw the stone on the Garuda which got hurt and started to give the pose. Miracle here is , during the Vaigasi and Marghazhi utsavam Kal Garudar is carried out in precession. While only four people are needed to carry the idol of Garuda out of the shrine, it multiples to 8, 16, 32, 64 and 128 people when the image is taken outside the temple. The weight of the idol remains the same when carried by 4 people and stays the same when carried outside by 128. Only supernatural force is acting on that idol when 4 people carry, if we replicate the same idol somewhere else, 128 people are required to lift. On the way back only 4 people are required to carry the float in the decreasing order 128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4. The aspect is treated magical as drops of sweat are also observed on the image of Kal Garuda during the six-hour-long procession. During the festive occasion, Garuda receives honors from Srinivasa Perumal (presiding deity) in the form of dress and ornaments. Jewels and dress are also presented to Garuda by Ranganatha, the presiding Vishnu form of Srirangam Ranganthaswamy Temple. It is also noted that Garudar travels slow while Nachiyar in swan moves faster and first to bless the procession followed by Srinivasa Perumal in Kal Garudar.
Thirumangai Alwar has written one hundred hymn on this particular temple, this is the 2nd temple where Thirumangai alwar written 100 plus hymn after Perumal temple in Thirukannapuram. He describes that he found the same beauty of Tirumala Venkatesa Perumal in this temple " தேன் கொண்ட சாரல் திருவேங்கடநாதன்னை நான் சென்று நாடி திருநாரையூரில் கண்டேனே ". It is believed that Pancha Samskara , a religious initiation done to Thirumangai alwar in this temple. This temple is referred as sidhi shetra where sages got liberation from earth. Vardaraja perumal temple in Kanchipuram is referred as Athigiri , Tirupathi as seshagiri and this place in Thiruraiyur is referred as suganthagiri.
It is beleived that this temple was built by Kochenganan cholan in 3rd century, an early chola king during sangam period, it is also beleived that while he is strong devotee of Shiva and built 70 temples for Lord Siva, the only Vishnu temple that he built was this. Apparantly, it is believed that Vishnu came in his dreams to build this temple.
Temple follows rituals of aru kala poojai. Earlier there used to be 2 Garuda's who used to fly during the neivedya time to take the offerings.
In 18-Jan-99, both attained Vaikundam near sthala virucham.
[ஸ்ரீ கிருஷ்ணார்ப்பணம்]
Location Map
Nachiyar koil is one of the main divya desams for lord Perumal, out of 108, this is considered as 14th divya desams for Lord Vishnu / Perumal. The significance of this temple is Nachiyar Thaiyar gets preference first before Perumal which is very rare and unique in divya desam temples of lord Perumal.
Temple is located on the outskirts of Kumbakonam in a place called Thirunarayur, which has now become more of Nachiyar Koil. Temple name is Sri Srinivasa Perumal koil, however it is more known as Nachiyar Koil or Kal Garudan Koil.
Legend goes like Sage Medhavi who lived in this place prayed to Maha Vishnu to have Mahalakshmi as his daughter, Based on his prayers, he found a beautiful girl child under vanjula tree and named her as Vanjulavalli and brought her up. Lord Vishnu took Garuda's help to fly in search of Mahalakshmi, Garuda was able to locate Mahalakshmi at Sage Medhavi's house and indicated the same to Lord Vishnu, Lord Vishnu took five forms and visited Medhavi's house and he was served with food by Vajulavalli, after food, when Vanjulavalli was pouring water to wash hands, Lord Vishnu held her hands, when she cried for help, Sage MEdhavi came there and he saw all five forms of Vishnu become one and Lord Vishnu gave him his darshan and asked vanjulavalli to get married to him. Sage agreed to this and asked for boon that his daughter should get preference in this place and that tradition is still being held. Any neivedyam goes to Lord Nachiyar first and then to Lord Srinivasa.
Mulavar has multiple names as Sri Vasudevan, Paripuranan, Nambi , Srinivasan, Vanjulavalli, Nachiyar. Other mulavars include Sri Prathubnan, Sri Langarshnan, Sri Purushothaman, Sri Brahma and Sri Anirudhan. All these forms together as mulavar and they are seen in marriage form.
Kal Garudan which is another famous in this temple has been located just outside mulavar sanidhanam. Since Lord Garudan helped Vishnu to locate this place of Mahalakshmi, Lord gave a boon that he will get equal prefernce in this temple. The legend goes that the sculpture was frustrated to make this Garudan which was done using Saligramam, as the Garuda kept flying away, he threw the stone on the Garuda which got hurt and started to give the pose. Miracle here is , during the Vaigasi and Marghazhi utsavam Kal Garudar is carried out in precession. While only four people are needed to carry the idol of Garuda out of the shrine, it multiples to 8, 16, 32, 64 and 128 people when the image is taken outside the temple. The weight of the idol remains the same when carried by 4 people and stays the same when carried outside by 128. Only supernatural force is acting on that idol when 4 people carry, if we replicate the same idol somewhere else, 128 people are required to lift. On the way back only 4 people are required to carry the float in the decreasing order 128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4. The aspect is treated magical as drops of sweat are also observed on the image of Kal Garuda during the six-hour-long procession. During the festive occasion, Garuda receives honors from Srinivasa Perumal (presiding deity) in the form of dress and ornaments. Jewels and dress are also presented to Garuda by Ranganatha, the presiding Vishnu form of Srirangam Ranganthaswamy Temple. It is also noted that Garudar travels slow while Nachiyar in swan moves faster and first to bless the procession followed by Srinivasa Perumal in Kal Garudar.
Thirumangai Alwar has written one hundred hymn on this particular temple, this is the 2nd temple where Thirumangai alwar written 100 plus hymn after Perumal temple in Thirukannapuram. He describes that he found the same beauty of Tirumala Venkatesa Perumal in this temple " தேன் கொண்ட சாரல் திருவேங்கடநாதன்னை நான் சென்று நாடி திருநாரையூரில் கண்டேனே ". It is believed that Pancha Samskara , a religious initiation done to Thirumangai alwar in this temple. This temple is referred as sidhi shetra where sages got liberation from earth. Vardaraja perumal temple in Kanchipuram is referred as Athigiri , Tirupathi as seshagiri and this place in Thiruraiyur is referred as suganthagiri.
It is beleived that this temple was built by Kochenganan cholan in 3rd century, an early chola king during sangam period, it is also beleived that while he is strong devotee of Shiva and built 70 temples for Lord Siva, the only Vishnu temple that he built was this. Apparantly, it is believed that Vishnu came in his dreams to build this temple.
Temple follows rituals of aru kala poojai. Earlier there used to be 2 Garuda's who used to fly during the neivedya time to take the offerings.
In 18-Jan-99, both attained Vaikundam near sthala virucham.
[ஸ்ரீ கிருஷ்ணார்ப்பணம்]
Location Map
