Thiru Anbil & Uraiyur

Thiru Anbil

After visiting Thirupper Nagar (Appakudathaan), we drove to have the darshan at Thiru Anbil. It seems in the olden days, people used to cross the river kollidam to visit either Anbil or Thirupper Nagar in small boats or across when the river was dry.

The Perumal here is known as Vadivazhigiya Nambi. He is so beautiful that the he is called as 'azhagan'. There are few divya desams where the Lord is called beautiful and this is one of them. The others that come to my mind are Kallazhagar, Azhagiya Manavalan..

By the time we reached Anbil, it was around 7 pm and the night had set. While the town (market place) was a bit crowded and had the usual sounds, the temple was silent and practically empty.

The Moolavar is in the sayana thirukolam, one of the beautiful postures. The utsavar was beauty personified. I started my divya desam pilgrimage at Srirangam and on the same day this was the third temple where the Perumal is in the reclining posture. This perhaps, if i look back in time, may be one of the reasons of my fascination to the Perumal in the sayana thirukolam. The other may be the fact that I have been a regular at Thiruneermalai for over 10 years now, where Lord Ranganathar at the hillock is in the reclining posture.

Anbil - as the bhattar told us is a place filled with Anbu (Love). Perhaps the perumal here wanted the name to remain so that the future generations can take a cue from Him.

The Thayar is a thani kovil nachiyar, with a separate sannithi for her. After a good darshan in the quiet evening, the return journey was spent almost in silence. My mother and I could not help but reminisence the whole day starting at Srirangam, going onto Uttamar Kovil, Thiruvellarai in the morning and Thirupernagar in the evening.

Uraiyur

As we were came near to Thiruchi, the driver told us that he can take as to Uraiyur which is another divya desam located within the city. He said we can try our luck to see the temple to see if the temple was still open.

Somehow, we knew the temple might be open and the perumal will provide us darshan. The whole day had gone very well for us, as we had planned two days to visit all the divya desams around Srirangam and here we were close to completing all of them in a day. We told the driver to take us there.

We got down and almost ran in. Only to find we had sufficient time for the divya darisanam.

The perumal, Azhagiya Manavalan is in the Nindra thirukolam and He is seen with his consrots Sridevi and Bhoodevi nachiyaar. There is no utsavar in this divya desam and the Ranganathar from Srirangam comes here for the Panguni Utsavam.

The bhattar told us that the Perumal here is in the kalyana kolam, with the prayoga chakram - sudharshanam chakram ready to be used. After having an excellent darshan, we moved back to our hotel. As we having our dinner (prasadam bought from Srirangam kovil earlier in the day), we were wondering why the Perumal in Uraiyur has the Prayoga chakram when he is in the kalyana kolam. Probably, it was meant for us to find it out on another day.

The day spent well, a complete surprise for my mother and me that we had the darshan of all the divya desams around thiruchi. Since we had the tickets back to our town only on the next night,we suddenly decided that we will visit Kumbakonam divya desams the next day. More about that in my next posts.

Sri Ranganayaki thayar sametha Sri Ranganatha Perumal thiruvadigale saranam.