Tiru Parameswara Vinnagaram

Coordinates: 12°50′13″N 79°42′36″E / 12.83694°N 79.71000°E / 12.83694; 79.71000
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Tiru Parameswara Vinnagaram
Parameshwara Vinnagaram on a full moon day
Religion
AffiliationHinduism
DistrictKanchipuram
DeityVaikunta Perumal (Vishnu) Vaikunthavalli Thayar
Location
State
Pallava
InscriptionsTamil

Thiru Parameswara Vinnagaram or Vaikunta Perumal Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to the

Kailasanathar temple
.

The temple is believed to have been built by the

Tenkalai mode of worship and is maintained and administered by the Hindu Religious and Endowment Board of the Government of Tamil Nadu. The temple is one of the prominent tourist attractions in the city.[1]

Legend

A view from temple tank

As per Hindu legend, the region where the temple is located was called Vidarbha Desa and ruled by a king named Viroacha. Due to his misdeeds in preceding birth, Virocha had no heir. He prayed in

yagna for the welfare of the people of their kingdom. Vishnu was pleased with the worship and appeared as Vaikundanatha to the princes.[2] It is believed that in modern times Vishnu appears to devotees in the same form as he appeared to the Dvarapalakas Pallavan and Villalan.[3]

As per another legend, sage

Pallava king worshipped Vishnu for the birth of a child. Vishnu gave the child to the king and named him Parameswara, who went on to become the Pallava king. The place is believed to have been named after the king.[4]

History

According to Hultzh, Parameswara Vinnagaram was constructed by the Pallava Monarch

Chalukyas.[10]

Architecture

Sculptures on the panel, 1956

Paramesvara Vinnagaram is an earliest specimen of Dravidian architecture. The temple has a rectangular plan and approached through a flat granite gateway tower. The

vihara. Three sanctuaries host the image of Vishnu in different postures - seated (ground floor), lying (first floor; accessible to devotees only on ekadashi days) and standing (second floor; inaccessible to devotees).[11] The logical and complex plan of the temple provided a prototype for the much larger shrines to be constructed all over Tamil Nadu. The external cloisters, with their lion pillars, are predecessors of the grand thousand pillared halls of later temples. In modern times, the four lions have been replaced with Garuda (image of eagle mount of Vishnu).[2]

The cloister walls have a sequence of relief sculptures depicting the history of the Pallava dynasty.

Badami Chalukyas. Finally, there are panels that show the search and the finding of a successor after Paramesvaravarman II's early death. The successor is none other than Nandivarman II
, who built this temple.

The niches on the walls around the sanctum are similar to the ones in

Dharmaraja, Arjuna and Bhima. The temple is built of granite with a mixture of sandstone. The three storied temple is the forerunner for various later built temples like Vaikunta Perumal temple at Uthiramerur, Koodal Azhagar temple at Madurai and Rajagopalaswamy temple at Mannargudi. The three stories are achieved with three concentric squares with a small passage in between with the top layer being closed by a filial.[3]

Festivals and religious practices

Stucco images of the legend of Narasimha

The temple follows

Vaikunta Ekadashi celebrated during the Tamil month of Margaḻi (December–January) are the two major festivals celebrated in the temple. Verses from Nalayira Divya Prabandham are recited by a group of temple priests amidst music with nadasvaram (pipe instrument) and tavil (percussion instrument).[2]

Culture

This temple is revered in

Divya Desam, one of the 108 Vishnu temples that are mentioned in the Sri Vaishnava canon. The temple is one of the fourteen Divya Desams in Kanchipuram and is part of Vishnu Kanchi, the place where most of the Vishnu temples in Kanchipuram are located.[5][13][14] The temple is also revered in the verses of Divyakavi Pillai Perumal Iyengar.[3]

The temple is declared as a heritage monument and administered by the Archaeological Survey of India as a protected monument.[15]

Gallery

  • Entrance
    Entrance
  • Flagpost
    Flagpost
  • Outer prakara (right)
    Outer prakara (right)
  • Outer prakara (left)
    Outer prakara (left)
  • Outer prakara (right)
    Outer prakara (right)
  • Outer prakara (left)
    Outer prakara (left)
  • Inner prakara (right)
    Inner prakara (right)
  • Inner prakara (left)
    Inner prakara (left)
  • Inner prakara (right)
    Inner prakara (right)
  • Inner prakara (left)
    Inner prakara (left)
  • Vimana
    Vimana
  • Vimana
    Vimana

References

  1. ^ Gopal, Madan (1990). K.S. Gautam (ed.). India through the ages. Publication Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. p. 217.
  2. ^ a b c "Sri Paramapada Nathar temple". Dinamalar. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
  3. ^ a b c d M.S., Ramesh (1993). 108 Vaishnavite Divya Desam Volume 1. Tirupati: Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams. pp. 90–94.
  4. ^ R., Dr. Vijayalakshmy (2001). An introduction to religion and Philosophy - Tévarám and Tivviyappirapantam (1st ed.). Chennai: International Institute of Tamil Studies. pp. 520–1.
  5. ^ a b B.V. 1973, pp. 161-162
  6. ^ C., Sivaramamurthi (2004). Mahabalipuram. New Delhi: The Archaeological Survey of India, Government of India. p. 6.
  7. ISBN 0-19-560686-8
  8. ^ Ca. Vē, Cuppiramaṇiyan̲; G., Rajendran (1985). Heritage of the Tamils: Temple Arts. International Institute of Tamil Studies. p. 298.
  9. ^ "Proceedings and Transactions of the All-India Oriental Conference". Oriental Philology. 1: 146. 1951.
  10. ISBN 978-93-83440-34-4
    .
  11. ISBN 978-81-87952-12-1
    .
  12. ^ C. Minakshi, (1999). The Historical Sculptures of the Vaikunthaperumal Temple Kanchi, Archaeological Survey of India
  13. ISBN 9788184950243
    .
  14. ^ C., Chandramouli (2003). Temples of Tamil Nadu Kancheepuram District. Directorate of Census Operations, Tamil Nadu.
  15. ^ Alphabetical List of Monuments - Tamil Nadu. Archaeological Survey of India. Retrieved 2 January 2017.

Sources

  • B.V., Ramanujam (1973). History of Vaishnavism in South India Upto Ramanuja. Annamalai University.

External links

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