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Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

Srirangam, Tiruchirappalli (Trichy), Tamil Nadu

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Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam
Photo: RUPESH MAURYA, CC BY-SA 4.0

About

The Sri Ranganathaswamy temple at Srirangam is the first and foremost of the 108 Divya Desams of Lord Vishnu. In the Vaishnava tradition, the word 'Koil' (temple) on its own means this temple, and it is also called Bhooloka Vaikuntham, Vaikuntha on earth. It stands on an island between the Kaveri and Kollidam rivers. Here Lord Ranganatha reclines on Adishesha, facing south. With seven enclosing walls (prakarams) and 21 gopurams, it is counted as the largest temple complex in the world still in active worship. The southern Rajagopuram rises about 73 metres.

The story

By the Sriranga Mahatmyam, the vimana of Sri Ranganatha arose from Brahma's tapasya and stayed in Satyaloka for ages. King Ikshvaku then brought it to Ayodhya, where the kings of the Sun dynasty worshipped it. After his victory over Ravana, Shri Ram gave it to his devotee Vibhishana. On his way back to Lanka, Vibhishana set it down on this island in the Kaveri, and it would not move again. The local Chola king Dharmavarma took up its worship, and to comfort Vibhishana the Lord agreed to recline facing south, towards Lanka. The Alvar saints sang of the Lord here. In the 11th and 12th centuries the acharya Ramanuja lived here; he set the temple's worship in order and wrote the Sri Bhashya here, and he has a special shrine in the temple. The temple went through hard times over the centuries, but devotees kept the Lord's festival murti safe for years and later brought it back. Chola, Pandya, Hoysala, Vijayanagara and Nayak rulers enlarged the temple, and the tall Rajagopuram was completed in 1987.

Visiting

October to March is pleasant; lakhs of devotees come for Vaikuntha Ekadashi. The complex is huge, so keep half a day to walk around calmly. The Jambukeswarar (Thiruvanaikaval) Shiv temple, the Kaveri ghats and Trichy's Rockfort temple are nearby.

Festivals

  • Vaikuntha Ekadashi: the twenty-day festival of Margazhi (December to January), when the Lord comes out through the Paramapada Vasal
  • Panguni Uthiram (March to April): the one day in the year when Ranganatha and Ranganayaki give darshan together
  • Jyeshtabhishekam (Tamil month of Aani, June to July)

Famous temples

Sources