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One of the 108 divya
desams of Hindus is the temple sthalam at Naachiyar Koil, Tirunaraiyur.
The place is almost an hour's drive from the temple town of
Kumbakonam in Thanjavur district.
The main deity here is
Lord Vishnu in the form of Srinivasar (Tirunaraiyur Nambi) and
His consort is Vanchulavalli thaayaar. The holy theertham here is
known as Manimukta Pushkarini and this sthalam has been sung by Tirumangai Alwar,
who refers to the Lord as "Naraiyur Nindra Nambi".
This temple was built by
the Chola King Ko Chenkannan, who worshipped Lord Vishnu here before he started off on battles with the Cheras and the Pandyas.
The Lord's Consort, Naachiyaar or Taayaar, gets the place of primary importance in this shrine,
thus the name, Naachiyaar Koil.
The moolavar (main
deity) here is known as Tirunaraiyur Nambi, also known as Sreenivasar or
Vasudevar. The Lord appears in the marriage pose or Kalyanakkolam with Vanchulavalli Taayaar (Nambikkai Naachiyaar) in the
sanctum sanctorum.
This is the place where
the Lord married Vanchulavalli thaayaar. According to the legend,
Goddess Lakshmi was born to Sage Madhava at the foot of a Vanchula
tree (thus, Vanchulavalli thaayaar). The Lord manifested himself in
the Pancha Vyuha forms and married Vanchulavalli thaayaar. The
Pancha vyuha forms are Sankarshana, Pradyumna, Aniruddha,
Purushothama and Vasudeva, and these idols can be seen in the garpa
griha.
The Temple
The temple has five prakarams with mandapams with artistically carved pillars. The garbagriha here is known as the Sreenivasa Vimanam.
Thaayar has no separate shrine here.
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 A
special shrine is dedicated to the Kal Garudan here. The Kal
Garuda at Nachiyar Koil is very famous and it is on Garuda that the
Uthsava moorthi is taken during the temple festivals. The Gardua is seen
with nine serpents, and has the power to remove the navagraha dosham
also.
The specialty of the Kal
Garuda is that the mount is said to increase exponentially in size as it
is carried out and decrease the same way while it is brought back
inside. When it is just taken out of
the shrine, only four people are needed to carry the mount. With each
step, the mount increases in weight and by the time it is carried out of
the temple, 64 people are required to carry it!
There are also shrines to Yoga Narasimhar, Veera Hanuman, Ramar and
Chakrapani.
The festivals
The Margazhi Bhrammotsavam (Mukkoti Utsavam) is of great significance here, especially the
Kal Garuda Vaahana Sevai, where the festival image of Sreenivasar is taken out on a stone Garuda mount.
During this festival, Naachiyar leads the procession on a Hamsa Vaahanam. The Tirukkalyanam is celebrated in the month of Aavani. The Pankuni Bhramotsavam, Vasantotsavam and Krishna Jayanthi are other festivals celebrated here.
Mrs. Mythili
Parthasarathy
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