“Sri Ranganatha Swamy Temple” by Neeharika Gembali

23/7/2020

Introduction

Picture Credit: Pankaj Tottada

‘Thiruvarangam’ is a temple located in Srirangam dedicated to Ranganatha Swamy, a reclining form of Lord Vishnu. It is one amongst the few illustrious temples in South India, dating back to the Sangam era [i], according to the Tamil Literature [1], and is mentioned in the epic Silappadikaram by Ilango Adigal [2].

Constructed in the Dravidian style of architecture, Thiruvarangam is one of eight self-manifested shrines of Lord Vishnu and one of the most important 108 main Vishnu temples. Known by several names such as Thiruvaranga Tirupati, Bhoologa Vaikundam, Periyakoil, Bhogamandabam, Thiruvarangam is the first among the Divya Desams [ii][3] alongside following the Thenkalai [iii] tradition of worship.

According to Divya Prabandha, a collection of 4,000 Tamil verses by twelve Alvars [iv]. There are entirely 108 Vaishnava Divya Desams [4]. Out of them, 105 are located in India, one is in Nepal, and the last two are believed to be outside the Earthly realms.

In India, up to eighty-four of them are in the state of Tamil Nadu, eleven of them are in Kerala, four of them are in Uttar Pradesh, three of them in Uttarakhand, two of them are in Andhra Pradesh, and one in Gujarat.

This first Divya Desam is massive in scale and is spread across 156 acres [5]. It is even the largest functioning temple in the world and is ranked amongst Angkor Wat in Cambodia & Borobudur in Indonesia [6]. Though Angkor Archaeological Park spreads over 40,000 hectares, unlike Sri Ranganatha Swamy Temple, the deity isn’t offered prayers anymore.

Another unique element for Sri Ranganatha Swamy Temple is that around its main shrine, there are seven concentric rectangular enclosures formed by thick rampart walls. Within these enclosures, the inner five enclosures of the complex constitute the temple monuments and shrines, and the outer two enclosures function as the settlement comprising living and commercial areas. These seven rectangular enclosures are called Sapta-Prakaram and these make the temple more of a temple-town than just a temple [7]. Thus, the distinction between the temple and the settlement gets blurred and the temple is often referred to as ‘Srirangam’ [8].

However, Sri Ranganatha Swamy Temple isn’t the only temple with these enclosures. Meenakshi Temple dedicated to Goddess Parvati in Madurai has four prakarams followed by four concentric rings of settlement. Similarly, Nataraja Temple dedicated to God Shiva in Chidambaram has five prakarams followed by a few concentric rings of settlements [9]. A slight difference is that Madurai and Chidambaram are examples of settlements around a temple while Srirangam has settlements within the temple. It is even considered as the best enclosure based temple-town in Tamil Nadu or arguably the entire world.

Planning

Picture Credit: Pankaj Tottada

Srirangam is also known as the “Temple Island” and the temple complex alone stretches over 156 acres with a perimeter of 4,116 meters. The tremendous site of this gigantic piece of architecture is situated on the island of Srirangam, that is bounded by the Kaveri River and Kollidam River (a tributary of Kaveri).

Covered by rivers on either sides, Srirangam’s Ranganatha Swamy temple has the Sapta-Prakaram design which encompasses the sanctum, gopuram, shrines, pavilions, mandapas, water harvesting systems via temple tanks, and other services with some residential and commercial locations. It has over twenty-one magnificent towers inside all prakaras and the main entrance known as Rajagopuram or the Royal Temple Tower is seventy-three meters high and moves up in eleven progressively smaller tiers.

The settlement planning was done based on the position of the temple and the settlements were within the temple. What makes Srirangam unique and important to an urban historian is the grandness of the vision and the rigour with which Srivaishnava ideology and practice were put in the making of the settlement. The seven concentric enclosures or prakara were taken as the reference for the settlement planning.

Apart from these seven enclosures which spread 129 kilometers and 170 kilometers approximately in the longitudinal and latitudinal axis, rampart walls were added during the medieval times after a few invasions. In these enclosures, the shrines and monuments are located within five enclosures and the last two enclosures have the commercial areas, living areas and other infrastructures. The numerous gopurams or magnificient towers connect the Sapta-Prakaram enclosures allowing the pilgrims to reach the sanctum from multiple directions [4][22].

Apart from the seven prakarams with massive walls, the temple complex has 21 very colourful sculpted gopurams (consecrated gateways with towers), 50 sub shrines, 9 sacred pools, gilded Vimana (dome) over the sanctum sanctorum of the presiding deity, and other interesting features such as fresco paintings. The temple is the nucleus and the life of people is centred around it.

Along with Lord Vishnu’s temple, Srirangam also has Lord Shiva as Jambukeshvara and many cave temples like Lalitankura cave temple, Pallava cave temple, Malayadipatti Perumal temple, Buddhist cave temples etc. A few of these cave temples are older than the Ranganatha and Jambukeshvara Swamy temples. The island even has Tiruchirapalli rock fort.

History

Picture Credit: Pankaj Tottada

Swamy Ranganatha Temple is not only referred to in the ancient Tamil literature of the Sangam era but is also mentioned through stone inscriptions belonging to the Chola, Pandya, Hoysala and Vijayanagar dynasties who ruled over the region. These inscriptions range between the 9th and 16th centuries and tell various stories about the temple.

Vibishana’s Journey:

It is said that Lord Brahma worshipped Lord Vishnu for a long time and in his absence, he appointed God Surya or the Sun God to continue the tradition.

Since then the Sun clan has been worshipping Lord Vishnu and in Treta yuga, Sri Ram who also belonged to the Sun clan worshipped the deity. After he defeated Ravana, Lord Rama in recognition for his loyalty and services presented the idol of the Lord Ranganathar to Vibishana.

On his way back to Lanka, Vibishana placed the idol down to rest and when he tried to lift it up again the idol did not budge. Considering that Lord Ranganathar expressed his desire to stay near the Cauvery river, the idol was left there as it faced south towards Lanka [11].
Temple’s Plunder:

In 1311, Alauddin Khilji’s general Malik Kafur’s forces of the Delhi Sultanate raided a “Golden Temple” on river “Kanobari” i.e. Kaveri as stated in Arabic texts during that period. They even destroyed the temple and plundered the golden icon of the deity to Delhi. According to Steven P. Hopkins, this is believed to be the Ranganatha Swamy Temple.
Shrine’s Return:

Though there are various inconsistencies in the Tamil texts as to how the temple regained the shrine, one text in Koil Olugu [v] informs that a young girl had vowed to fast till she had seen the icon. She followed the Muslim army as it returned with the loot back to Delhi. Sneaking into the palace, she noticed that the Sultan’s daughter had fallen in love with the image. The young girl returned to Srirangam and told the priests about what she had seen in Delhi. The priests went to Delhi with musicians to find the shrine in playful possession of Sultan’s daughter. They sang and danced before the Sultan while pleading him to return the shrine. Accepting the request, the Sultan returned the Shrine. However, since his decision upset his daughter, the Sultan sent his army again to Srirangam to bring the idol, but this time they were not successful.
Temple records of Srirangam Temple:

In 1323 AD, there were more invasions. Intending to secure the shrine, a group led by the Vaishnavite Acharaya Pillai Lokacharya preemptively moved the shrine to Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu before the Delhi Sultanate troops reached Srirangam. Alongside Lord Vishnu’s shrine, Goddess Ranganayaki or Goddess Lakshmi’s shrine was also moved to another location by a separate group and the temple was then defended. According to the Tamil texts, around 13,000 devotees died in the fierce battle.

After nearly six decades, the Vijayanagara Empire ousted the Madurai Sultanate in 1378 and the image of Namperumal [vi] was brought back to Srirangam. Before then, for decades the deity and the priestly wardens wandered and secretly carried the temple’s icon through villages of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka. They finally went to the hills of Tirumala Tirupati, where they remained until the Ranganatha Swamy temple was rebuilt in 1371.

When the icon was consecrated again, according to the legends, this time, in the memory of the first Sultan’s daughter, a niche [vii] was built in the temple for her in a tradition called Thulukha Nachiyar [viii]. The niche shows her as a girl sitting on a horse that carried her to Delhi and her legend is still remembered. Even today, a painting of “Surathani” [ix] also known as Thulukha Nachiyar in Tamil can be seen in her shrine near the Arjuna Mandapa adjacent to the sanctum.

During the contemporary processions, when the icon is taken out of sanctum and then returned after its journey, Thulukha Nachiyar is dressed in Muslim garments and food such as butter and chappathis are offered to her.
Mythology:

Sri Ranganatha Swamy temple’s artwork is the subject of numerous different Tamil legends and is covered in regional Puranic texts. Sriranga Mahathmiyam, for example, is one of the compilations of the temple.

According to it, Brahma the Creator was performing austerities during the Samudra Manthan or the churning of the cosmic ocean and Srirangam Vimanam emerged as a result. It remained in Satyaloka for ages and was brought to Ayodhya by King Ikshvaku.

Later on, Lord Rama the descendent of King Ikshvaku and an avatar of Vishnu killed King Ravana and gave the Srirangam Vimanam to his younger brother Vibhishana. When Vibhishana passed through Trichy, en route to Lanka where he had become the king, the Srirangam Vimanam would not move from the island.

So he gave it to King Dharma Varma who ruled over the island and King Dharma consecrated the Vimanam to face the south cardinal direction eternally thereby blessing Vibhishana and Lanka. Hence, the deity which in a reclining posture faces South and the idol body is aligned to the east-west axis.
Legend of the Four Sages:

As per another legend, Sanaka, the four child sages, came for a darshana of Ranganatha in Srirangam. They were stopped by Jaya and Vijaya, the guardians of Vaikuntha. In spite of their pleadings, they were refused entry. In anger, all four of them cursed the guardians in one voice and left.

The guardians approached Vishnu and told him about the curse. Ranganatha said that he would not be able to revert the curse and gave them two options. The first one being that they were to be born as demons opposing Vishnu for three lifetimes or be born as good human beings in seven lifetimes.

Not wanting to be separated from their lord for seven lifetimes, the guardians accepted to be born as demons for three lifetimes and were believed to have taken the form of Hiranyaksha & Hiranyakasipu, Ravana & Kumbakarna and Sisupala & Dantavakra. Lord Vishnu on the other hand took four avatars – Varaha, Narasimha, Rama, and Krishna respectively to kill the demons in each one of those births.

Unique Features

Picture Credit: Pankaj Tottada

For a temple as old as Sri Ranganatha Swamy temple, there would certainly be a lot of unique features. A few of them are:

Sri Ranganatha Swamy temple is also considered to be the tallest temple in India with its Raja Gopuram or entrance tower being 73 metres in height [14].
The idol of the main deity is unique since it is not made of granite like many other idols but is made of Stucco (a unique combination of lime, mortar and stones bound together by a special paste (Thailam), made of musk, camphor, honey, Jaggery and sandal).
In the temple, the body of a Vaishnava philosopher named Sri Ramanuja has been preserved. Sri Ramanujacharya was an exponent of the Sri Vaishnavism tradition within Hinduism. His sacred burial shrine known as Ramanuja’s Thiruvarasu is located inside the Sri Ranganathaswamy temple and is Sannidhi or the Ramanuja shrine.

Sandalwood paste and saffron are used to maintain the body and no other chemicals are added. Twice a year, a coat of camphor mixed with saffron, which produces ochre/orange tint is applied on the preserved body and this tradition has been practiced for more than 878 years [12].

His body is placed behind his idol and is open for darshan to all devotees. The eyes are clearly visible and one can notice nails on fingers, which indicate that it is actually a human body. His physical body is placed in the southwest corner on the fifth round within the Srirangam temple as ordered by Lord Ranganatha himself [13].

The egyptian mummies are kept in a sleeping position and wrapped in cloth after applying several layers of chemicals but Ramanujacharya’s original body is kept in a normal sitting position and open to all for viewing. This is the only instance where an actual human body is kept inside a Hindu temple for so many years.
Another unique feature of the Srirangam Temple & Township layout is that starting with the eastern outer wall of the Sanctuary, there are consecrated mini-Mandapams housing the blessed feet of the Lord in collinear formation through the Seven Enclosures [6].

The inner three enclosures taken together, with the Arya-bhata and the Parama-pada gates defining the south-north axis, constitute the Inner Court and the entire outer area occupied by the rest of the enclosures is known as the Outer Court.

Conclusion

Under the Vijayanagara Empire, the temple site saw over 200 years of stability, repairs, first round of fortifications and addition of mandapas. The Vishnu and Lakshmi images were reinstalled and the site became a Hindu temple again in 1371 CE under Kumara Kampana, a Vijayanagara commander and the son of Bukka Raya I.

In the last decade of the 14th century, a pillared antechamber [x] was gifted by the Vijayanagara rulers. In the 15th century, they coated the apsidal roofs with solid gold sheets, followed by financing the addition of a series of new shrines, mandapas and gopuras to the temple, according to George Michell.

After the destruction of the Vijayanagara in the late 16th century, geo-political instability returned. The site became the focus of bitter wars between the Hindu Nayakas and the Muslim Mughals in the 17th century. Even though the Nayakas fortified the temple town and the seven prakaras, the temple was taken over by Muslim Nawabs of Arcot as a lucrative source of revenues, and thereafter attracted a conflict between the French and British military powers.

Srirangam temple site and the neighboring city of Tiruchirappalli or Trichy became an intense center of Christian and Muslim missionary activity during the 18th and 19th centuries. With the establishment of the Madras Presidency within the British Empire, geo-political stability returned and the Ranganathaswamy Temple site attracted interest in archeological and historical studies.

The epigraphical evidence suggests that these Hindu dynasties - Cholas, Pandyas, Hoysalas, Nayaks, Vijayanagara – assisted with rebuilding, renovation and supported the traditional customs. Some mention substantial gifts to the temple too. A Chola king, for example, presented the temple with a golden serpent couch. Some historians identify this king as Rajamahendra Chola.

Picture Credit: Pankaj Tottada

The temple has witnessed and played a key role in the early Sri Vaishnavism history, particularly the centuries that followed the major Hindu philosopher Ramanuja (1017–1137 AD), and his predecessors Nathamuni and Yamunacharya. It witnessed the debate between the Dvaita (dualistic) and Advaita (non-dualistic) sub-traditions within Vaishnavism. Centuries later, it was a key site in the debate and disagreements between the northern Tamil and southern Tamil traditions, also called as the Vadakalai and Thenkalai. The early rulers such as the Pallavas, Cholas and Pandyas supported it as a hub of the Bhakti movement with a devotional singing and dance tradition, but this tradition stopped during the 14th century and was revived in a limited way, much later.

In modern times, Sri Ranganathaswamy temple has won the UNESCO Asia-Pacific award for cultural heritage conservation programme in the Awards of Merit category. It is the first temple from Tamil Nadu to grab the prestigious honour from the UN body. The traditional method of renovating temple premises as well as re-establishment of rainwater harvesting and historic drainage system in preventing flooding were two key parameters that earned the temple the award.

Notes

i. The Sangam Era period was from the sixth century BCE to the third century CE in ancient Tamil Nadu, Kerala and parts of Sri Lanka which were then known as Tamilakam. It was named after the famous Sangam academies of poets and scholars who were centered in the city of Madurai.

ii. Divya means divine and Desam indicates place or abode.

iii. Accepting Prapatti or surrender as the only means to attain salvation.

iv. Alvars are saints.

v. Temple records of Srirangam Temple.

vi. Tamil name for Lord Vishnu’s idol.

vii. Small devoted place.

viii. Considered to be Ranganatha Swamy’s consort.

ix. Muslim princess, daughter of Malik Kafur.

x. An antechamber is a smaller room serving as an entryway into a larger one.

References

Team

Contributor:
Neeharika Gembali
Editors:
Sreekar Ayyagari, &
Tarun Chintam
Photographer:
Pankaj Tottada

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