Back

Dashboard

Temple Details

States

City

God Name

God Type

Type

Aathara Sthalam
Abodes of Murugan
Ashta Veeratta Temples
Asta Vinayak Temples
Chardam Yatra Temples
Divya Desams
Durga Aalayams by Sage Parasurama
Jyothirlingams
Mandi Mandaean Temple
Muktiskhetras
Nagadevatas Temples
Nakshatra Temples & Trees
Narasimha Skhetras
Nava Puliyur Temples
Nava Tirupati Temples
Navagraha Parihara Temples
Others
Paadal Petra Sthalams
Pancha Bhoota Sthalams
Pancha Dwaraka Temples
Pancha Kannan Temples
Pancha Kedar Temples
Pancha Pandava Temples
Pancha Ranga Kshetras
Pancha Sabhai Thalangal
Pancharama Skhetras
Parihara Shiva Temples
Saptha Mangai Stalangal
Saptha Stana Temples
Saptha Sthana Sthalams
Saptha Vidangam
Sapthavigraha Moorthis
Sastha Aalayam by Sage Parasurama
Shakti Peethas
Shiridi Sai Temples
Shiva Temples by Sage Parasurama
Swayambhu Temples
Tevaram Vaippu Sthalams
Vishnumaya Temples

Temple Speciality

Temple Name

Sthalam

&nbsp;

&nbsp;Divyadesam91

Vanamamalai Perumal Temple, also known as Arulmigu Sree Vanamamalai Totatri Perumal Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Vishnu, in Vanamamalai or Totadrikshetram (Nanguneri), Tamil Nadu, India on the banks of Thamiraparani river. Constructed in the Dravidian style of architecture, the temple is glorified in the Divya Prabandha, the early medieval Tamil canon of the Azhwar saints from the 6th&ndash;9th centuries AD.

It is one of the 108 Divyadesam shrines dedicated to Vishnu. Vishnu is worshipped here as Vanamalai Perumal and his consort Lakshmi as Varamanagi.&nbsp;The temple is believed to have been built by the Pandyas, with later contributions from Vijayanagar kings and Madurai Nayaks. The temple covers an area of 5 acres (20,000 m2) and has a five-tiered temple tower.

The temple is one of the eight Sywayambu Kshetrams, the eight temples associated with Vishnu, that manifested on its own. Vanamamalai is believed to have appeared to Adisesha and Garuda. Six daily rituals and a dozen yearly festivals are held at the temple, of which the chariot festival, celebrated during the Tamil month of Chittirai (March&ndash;April), is the most prominent. The temple is maintained and administered by the Vanamamalai Mutt.

&nbsp;

Puranam

The details about the presiding deity finds mention in&nbsp;Brhamananda Purana,&nbsp;Skanda Purana&nbsp;and&nbsp;Narasimha Purana. Sage&nbsp;Narada&nbsp;got the narration about the features of Thodatri and Sargunamangai from&nbsp;Shiva.As per&nbsp;Hindu&nbsp;legend,&nbsp;Lakshmi, the wife of&nbsp;Vishnu&nbsp;is believed to have born at this place as Srivaramangai (meaning&nbsp;lady) and hence the place came to be known as Varangunamangai.

As per another legend,&nbsp;Adisesha, the serpent performed penance at this place to seek the grace of Vishnu to lay on him. Vishnu was pleased by his devotion and rested on the serpent.&nbsp;Garuda, the eagle also performed penance and was granted a wish to be guarding&nbsp;Vaikunta, the residence of Vishnu. 
As per local legend, a childless king named Kaaarya worshiped Vishnu at this place.

Vishnu directed him to Nanguneri under the earth. The king dug up the earth to see blood oozing from the place. To stop the blood, the king was asked to perform ablution on the presiding deity with oil every day. Blessed with children, the king constructed the temple.

&nbsp;

The temple has many inscriptions, the earliest of which is from 1236 CE. The inscription is from the period of&nbsp;Sundara Pandya I&nbsp;indicates an gift from him on the occasion of Adi Puram. Another inscription from 1275 from&nbsp;Kulasekara I&nbsp;indicates the details of tax collection in the region. The inscription on the Eastern Gopuram from the period of&nbsp;Sundara Pandya II&nbsp;in 1284 indicates gift of land to the temple. The gift of&nbsp;Vikrama Pandya III&nbsp;is inscribed on the northern wall in 1299. A gift of money to sculpt the image of Sadagopar in 1305 is found in the Eastern wall in the second precinct.

From the Vijayanagara rulers, the temple came under the administration of kings of Travancore. A&nbsp;sanyasi&nbsp;named Pushpanjali was entrusted with the donations from the kings. During 1447, the temple came under the administration of Vanamamalai Mutt. The first pontiff of the temple arranged for the installation of the idol of the consort of Vanamamalai from Tirupathi.

The Namboodris were also replaced by the priests from Tirupathi during the period. During the 17th century, the then pontiff sought the help of the ruling Naik king to resolve local disputes. During 1794, the Nawab of Carnatic, Abdul Umra, endowed extensive lands to the Mutt.

&nbsp;

The presiding deity is called Devapiran as he is believed to have married Varamangai, the daughter of the pontiff of Vanamamalai Mutt. The temple is maintained and administered by the pontiff in modern times.

Varnam

&nbsp;

The temple has a large five-tiered gopuram (gateway tower) and a large temple compound having two prakarams (closed precincts of a temple).&nbsp;There are various pillared halls in the temple. The presiding deity, Vanamamalai Perumal is seen seated on the Adisesha, the serpent deity. Sridevi and Bhoodevi, the two consorts of Perumal are seen on either sides of the presiding deity.The shrine of the presiding deity is located axial to the gateway tower and approached through Ardhamandapam and Mahamandapam, pillared halls.

There are three precincts in the temple, with the shrine of Thayar located in the second precinct. There is a festival hall in the second precinct in the temple facing South that has sculpted pillars indicating various legends of the Puranas. The most notable of them being a legend of Mahabharata where Bhima attacks a lion legged person with his club. The second precinct has pillared halls that has smaller sculpted representation indicating various avatars of Vishnu.

&nbsp;

The temple is considered one of the eight&nbsp;Sywayambu Kshetras&nbsp;of Vishnu where presiding deity is believed to have manifested on its own. Seven other temples in the line are&nbsp;Srirangam Ranganathaswamy temple,&nbsp;Bhu Varaha Swamy temple, and&nbsp;Tirumala Venkateswara Temple&nbsp;in&nbsp;South India&nbsp;and&nbsp;Saligrama,&nbsp;Naimisaranya,&nbsp;Pushkar&nbsp;and&nbsp;Badrinath Temple&nbsp;in&nbsp;North India. 
&nbsp;

Image of shrines in the temple

&nbsp;The temple is revered in&nbsp;Nalayira Divya Prabandham, the 7th&ndash;9th century Vaishnava canon, by&nbsp;Nammazhwar&nbsp;in ten hymns. The temple is classified as a&nbsp;Divyadesam, one of the 108 Vishnu temples that are mentioned in the book.As per the accounts of the Jeeyar, the head of the Vanamamalai Mutt, Janakapuri in Nepal, where&nbsp;Rama&nbsp;(an&nbsp;avatar&nbsp;of Vishnu) married&nbsp;Sita, also has a place called Nanguneri, similar to the Vanamamalai temple.

Highlights

&nbsp;

The temple priests perform the&nbsp;pooja&nbsp;(rituals) during festivals and on a daily basis based on Vaiksana Agama. As at other Vishnu temples of Tamil Nadu, the priests belong to the&nbsp;Vaishnavaite&nbsp;community, a Brahmin sub-caste. The temple rituals are performed six times a day:&nbsp;Ushathkalam&nbsp;at 7 a.m.,&nbsp;Kalasanthi&nbsp;at 8:00&nbsp;a.m.,&nbsp;Uchikalam&nbsp;at 12:00&nbsp;p.m.,&nbsp;Sayarakshai&nbsp;at 6:00&nbsp;p.m.,&nbsp;Irandamkalam&nbsp;at 7:00&nbsp;p.m. and&nbsp;Ardha Jamam&nbsp;at 10:00&nbsp;p.m. Each ritual has three steps:&nbsp;alangaram&nbsp;(decoration),&nbsp;neivethanam&nbsp;(food offering) and&nbsp;deepa aradanai&nbsp;(waving of lamps) for both Vanamamalai Perumal and Thayar.

During the last step of worship,&nbsp;nagaswaram&nbsp;(pipe instrument) and&nbsp;tavil&nbsp;(percussion instrument) are played, religious instructions in the&nbsp;Vedas&nbsp;(sacred text) are recited by priests, and worshippers prostrate themselves in front of the&nbsp;temple mast. There are weekly, monthly and fortnightly rituals performed in the temple.&nbsp;The major festival, the twelve-day Brahmotsavam is celebrated during the&nbsp;Tamil month&nbsp;of Thai (January - February).

&nbsp;

Life size sculptures in the temple

Vishnu is considered as&nbsp;alankara priyar&nbsp;(one who prefers decoration), and&nbsp;Shiva&nbsp;as&nbsp;abisheka priyar&nbsp;(one who prefers ablution). Vanamamlai temple is one of the few Vishnu temples where ablution is done for the presiding deity on a daily basis. At around 7 am every day, ablution is performed on the presiding deity with milk, curd and other&nbsp;pooja&nbsp;items. The ghee used for ablution is poured in the oil well in the temple, which is considered sacred.&nbsp;During the festival occasions, the festival idols are brought to the Vanamamalai Mutt located outside the premises of the temple.

Sevas/Festivals

Timing

contact

Address

Google Link

Image

Status