| Tiru Parameswara Vinnagaram | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Religion | |
| Affiliation | Hinduism |
| District | Kanchipuram |
| Deity | Vaikunta Perumal (Vishnu)Vaikunthavalli Thayar |
| Location | |
| State | Tamil Nadu |
| Country | India |
  Location inTamil Nadu | |
| Coordinates | 12°50′13″N79°42′36″E / 12.83694°N 79.71000°E /12.83694; 79.71000 |
| Architecture | |
| Type | Dravidian architecture |
| Creator | Pallava |
| Inscriptions | Tamil |
Tiru Parameswara Vinnagaram also known today as theVaikunta Perumal Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to the deityVishnu (orKrishna)[1]: 10 , located in the ancientPallava capital city ofKanchipuram in the present-day South Indian state ofTamil Nadu. Built by the emperorNandivarman II Pallavamalla, the 8th century stone temple was originally known asParamechuravinnagaram in Tamil andVishnugriha in Sanskrit, meaning "Vishnu-house", signifying a royal palace forParameshwar or God.[1]: 3
The temple has been the subject of a major scholarly study by historian D. Dennis Hudson, whose monograph, published by Oxford University Press, is dedicated to decoding the temple’s imagery and symbolism, which he interprets as an architectural summa of theBhagavata Purana and its entire religious system.[1]: 27 Analysis of the Vaikunta Perumal Temple has also contributed to dating portions of the Bhagavata Purana to the fourth to seventh century rather than the ninth century, as commonly believed.[2]
The temple follows Vaikasana Agama and observes six daily rituals and two yearly festivals. The temple followsTenkalai mode of worship and is maintained and administered by the Hindu Religious and Endowment Board of theGovernment of Tamil Nadu. The temple is one of the prominent tourist attractions in the city.[3]
According to one 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 inKailasanathar Temple andShiva, the presiding deity of the temple gave a boon that theDvarapalas (the gatekeepers) of the Vishnu temple will be born as sons to him. The princes were devoted to Vishnu and conductedyagna for the welfare of the people of their kingdom. Vishnu was pleased with the worship and appeared as Vaikundanatha to the princes.[4] It is believed that in modern times Vishnu appears to devotees in the same form as he appeared to the Dvarapalakas Pallavan and Villalan.[5]
In another legend, the sageBharadvaja was doing penance at this place and was attracted by a celestial nymph. The sage married her and they both got a son. The sage returned to his penance, while the nymph returned to her denizen. Shiva and Vishnu undertook the child under their aegis. At the same time, aPallava 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.[6]
According to Hultzh, Parameswara Vinnagaram was constructed by the Pallava MonarchNandivarman II in 690 CE, while other scholars place it in the late 8th century.[7][8] Nandivarman Pallavamallan was a worshipper ofVishnu and a great patron of learning. He renovated old temples and built several new ones. Among the latter was the Parameswara Vinnagaram or the Vaikunta Perumal temple atKanchipuram which contains inscribed panels of sculpture portraying the events leading up to the accession of Nandivarman Pallavamalla to the throne. The great Vaishnava saintThirumangai Alvar was his contemporary.[9][10][11] There are various inscriptions in the temple that detail the socio-economic and political situation of the country during the Pallava reign. Around the sanctum sanctorum in the first precinct, there is an inscription dated to the 8th century which records the gift of a bowl and an image made of gold measuring 1,000 sovereigns by King Abhimanasiddhi. During the period of Dantivarman I in 813, there was a gift of golden bowl weighing ten thousandkalanju. There was another gift of 3,000kalanju of gold to meet daily expenses of the temple. A record of gift of a devotee named Thiruvaranga Manickam to feed devotees of Vishnu is also seen in the temple.[5] The temple is believed to have been constructed few years after the construction ofKanchi Kailasanathar Temple. The bas reliefs in the temple reveal the war between the Pallavas andGangas and also withChalukyas.[12]
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Paramesvara Vinnagaram is an earliest specimen of Dravidian architecture. The temple has a rectangular plan and approached through a flat granite gateway tower. Thevimana has a stepped pyramidal roof and it resembles avihara. Three sanctuaries host the image ofVishnu in different postures - seated (ground floor), lying (first floor; accessible to devotees only onekadashi days) and standing (second floor; inaccessible to devotees).[13] The logical and complex plan of the temple provided a prototype for the much larger shrines to be constructed all overTamil 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 withGaruda (image of eagle mount of Vishnu).[4]
The cloister walls have a sequence of relief sculptures depicting the history of the Pallava dynasty.[14] The first set of panels show the supposedly divine lineage of the Pallavas starting fromBrahma, followed byAngiras (sage),Bṛhaspati,Bharadvaja,Drona andAshwatthama. These panels are followed by panels depicting the actual Pallava kings themselves. A typical panel shows the king on the left frame of the panel. In some cases, the coronation of the king is shown as can be seen by priests pouringsacred water on his head. The right side of the panel shows battle scenes or other events during that monarch's reign. The panels ofMahendravarman I andNarasimhavarman I show the battles withPulakesin II of theBadami Chalukyas. Finally, there are panels that show the search and the finding of a successor afterParamesvaravarman II's early death. The successor is none other thanNandivarman II, who built this temple.
The niches on the walls around the sanctum are similar to the ones inMahabalipuram. Some of the sculptures depict various events from theMahabaratha, depicting the images ofDharmaraja,Arjuna andBhima. The temple is built of granite with a mixture of sandstone. The three storied temple is the forerunner for various later built temples likeVaikunta Perumal temple atUthiramerur,Koodal Azhagar temple atMadurai andRajagopalaswamy temple atMannargudi. The three stories are achieved with three concentric squares with a small passage in between with the top layer being closed by a filial.[5]
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The temple followsVaikasana Agama. The temple priests perform thepooja (rituals) during festivals and on a daily basis. Like other Vishnu temples of Tamil Nadu, the priests belong to theVaishnavaite community, from the Brahmin varna. The temple rituals are performed six times a day:Ushathkalam at 7:30 a.m.,Kalasanthi at 8:00 a.m.,Uchikalam at 12:00 p.m.,Sayarakshai at 5:00 p.m.,Irandamkalam at 6:00 p.m. andArdha Jamam at 7:30 p.m. Each ritual has three steps:alangaram (decoration),neivethanam (food offering) anddeepa aradanai (waving of lamps) for both Vaikuntanathan and Vaikundavalli. During the last step of worship, religious instructions in theVedas (sacred text) are recited by priests, and worshippers prostrate themselves in front of thetemple mast. There are weekly, monthly and fortnightly rituals performed in the temple. The Vaikasi Brahmotsavam, celebrated during theTamil month ofVaikasi (May–June), andVaikunta Ekadashi celebrated during the Tamil month ofMargaḻi (December–January) are the two major festivals celebrated in the temple. Verses fromNalayira Divya Prabandham are recited by a group of temple priests amidst music withnadasvaram (pipe instrument) andtavil (percussion instrument).[4]
This temple is revered inNalayira Divya Prabandham, the 7th–9th century Vaishnava canon byThirumangai Alvar in ten hymns. The temple is classified as aDivya Desam, one of the 108 Vishnu temples that are mentioned in the Sri Vaishnava canon. The temple is one of the fourteenDivya Desams inKanchipuram and is part of Vishnu Kanchi, the place where most of the Vishnu temples in Kanchipuram are located.[7][15][16] The temple is also revered in the verses of Divyakavi Pillai Perumal Iyengar.[5]
The temple is declared as a heritage monument and administered by theArchaeological Survey of India as a protected monument.[17]
