M3-GLORIOUS SRIRANGAM TEMPLE -HEAVEN ON EARTH

 

BY    PRAGYANSHARMA POLAVARAPU  (VRS.SOMANCHI)

 THE  GLORIOUS  SRIRANGAM TEMPLE

(a)

Srirangam temple lies on a vast sized island surrounded by the holy Kaveri River .The god is Lord Vishnu called here as Lord Ranganatha( also as Ranga Mannar or great King Vishnu) . Goddess Laxmi is called as goddess Ranganayaki.The river here is called Daksina Ganga.Srirangam is the first among the 108 “Divya Desams”(holy temple towns) — specified by Sri Ramanuja as abodes of Lord Vishnu .The temple became very prominent during 11th century when saint Ramanuja was the chief spiritual teacher at the temple and propagated the Sri Vaishnava philosophy.

LEGEND

According to legend  when Lord  Brahma prayed during the  “Samudra Mathanam” (churning of cosmic ocean) the main Srirangam temple tower( golden Vimanam) emerged from  the ocean . It was the first appearance of the most holy temple.It remained in Brahmaloka  for ages and was brought to Ayodya by  king Ikshvaku(ancestor of Lord Rama). King  Rama gave it to King Vibhishana after Ravana was killed . But in the area of present srirangam main temple  where Vibhishana got down to rest, the heavy Vimana (golden temple tower)got permanantly stuck in ground and did not move. King Vibhishana felt extremely sad and unwillingly  gave it to the local king  Dharmavarma

There is also the great legend about Lord Vishnuin—as god almighty of the universe is called by traditional Hindus—about how through his  several earthly incarnatins eliminated the mightiest demons. In the heavens millions years ago there were  four child sages . They are generally referred to as  “Sanaka and his brothers”. They are considered as greater than any sages who were born in this universe.They were first living beings of universe created  by the creator Lord Brahma by invocating a manthra in his mind. The child-sages once wanted to meet Lord Vishnu in his golden heaven Vaikuntam.They could cross all the six outer gateways ( prakaras) of the golden vaikuntha . But  at the seventh gate (which directly led to Lord Vishnu) they were strictly stopped by Jaya and Vijaya the palace gaurds of Vaikuntham.The gaurds laughed at them and made fun of them treating them as little children.

 

 Sage Sanaka and his brothers cursed  the gaurds to be born as rakshasas. When they prayed to be excused they were directed by the sages to meet Lord Vishnu himself. Lord Vishnu took pity on them and curtailed their curse . Lord Vishnu said they have to be born three times on earth as wicked rakshasa and in each birth he(Lord Vishnu himself) would kill them and release their souls. After the three births on earth they can return to Vaikunta and do their jobs. Accordingly they took birth on earth as follows.

They were born as Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashipu . Lord Vishnu killed the former in his “Varaha Avatar”(wild boar) and rescued Bhudevi(Planet Earth). Lord Vishnu killed the other evil brother in his “Narasimha Avathaar” and installed  Prahlada (Hiranyakashipu’s son) as king .Prahlada was a great devotee of lord Vishnu. In second birth they were born as Ravana and Kumbhakarna . Both were killed by Lord Rama . In the third birth they were born as very evil kings Shishupala and Danthavakra (friends of the most evil Kaurava king Duryodhana) and were killed by Lord Krishna. 

(b)

The temple complex occupies an area of 160  acres. The temple has 17 major gopurams (temple towers) , 60 temples , nine sacred tanks and a huge 1000- pillared hall .The highest  tower is 240 ft tall. Such a  large number of temples in a single complex created  a feeling of heaven on earth in the minds of the millions of devotees who visited it. The long corridors of gigantic  stone pillars are awe-inspiring.

There is said to be mention in Ramayana and Mahabharata and in Puranas about a reclining Lord Vishnu statue  in the temple. There is said to be mention in ancient Sangam era Tamil spiritual  literature about a great temple in Srirangam. Internet encyclopedias mention that there  are stone inscriptions of 100 BC to 100 AD about a temple in Srirangam. Thus we gather that the holy Srirangam temple was prominent in the religious history of south India for more than a millennium and provided great religious solace to people of south India. 

 

Srirangam town  is situated about 325 kilometres  southwest of Chennai. The town with a population of 1,80,000  is connected by good rail and road network and is near to the Tiruchirapalli International Airport. The temple complex has been nominated for recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage Site

The Srirangam temple is also said to be the largest temple complex in India and  the second  largest in the whole world having  daily prayers and holy rituals .  it is second biggest after the semi-ruined Hindu-Buddhist “Angkor Wat” temple of Combodia .

 ( c )

At 6am on 1st August , as already mentioned ,we visited  the  great Srirangam temple. After passing through the many outer  “prakarams” ( enclosing border wallsof granite  like fort walls ) we entered the inner prakarams . When we saw the sky-high temple towers for the first time and felt thrilled that we were walking inside  the most holy temple complex  we were overjoyed . We  were wonderstruck and  awed by seeing so many holy temple towers of great height .

 

There was big religious traditional ceremony before permitting devotees near to the  sanctum sanctorum  . A temple musician played veena for an hour simultaneously reciting prayers. Barricades  near to the walls were erected to regulate flow of devotees. Then to our surprise, the decorated  temple elephant, a decorated  white horse and a decorated bull  were brought into the center of the hall and they too paid obeisance to the  god by bending their heads and bowing . It created much  amusement to the hundreds of devotees.  They were taken out after a few minutes.

After these ceremonies we   could see the god  by moving in single file slowly past  the sanctum sanctorum .We saw the big black granite  idol of Sri Ranganatha(Lord Vishnu) of 21 feet length in a majestic reclining posture. The lord of the universe of billion galaxies (as worshipped by traditional Hindus) had a bejeweled gold crown and his hands and feet were also clad in gold. As per age old custom the sanctum is illuminated only by two dim oil lamp burning ghee. There are small  gold idols of the gods kept before the  reclining idol and they are used as processional idols. There is also a “pradaksina marg”(path used by devotees for circumambulation by devotees around the sanctum of the god).

Also as per tradition here the idols of goddess Laxmi,goddess  Bhudevi and Lord Brahma are not kept in the sanctum where Lord Ranganatha’s statue exists but in another sanctum. But while taking the holy procession all statues are included. There are temples of  Lord Vishnu,Lord Rama,Lord Krishna and other gods in the inner prakarams. There are also shrines to the  saints of Vaishnavism .we visited most of these temples and shrines and felt blessed.

( d )

Daily  thousands of devotees visit the temple coming from all corners of the country. It requires two or three days or more to visit and pray at the different shrines in the temple complex. But since our schedule was tight and we had to visit nearly ten holy places within a week we could stay inside Srirangam temple only for three or four hours.

The temple’s  two outer prakarams( stone walls of the outer enclosures) merged into Srirangam town and have become streets of the town with houses constructed  adjoining the walls . In those streets the temple towers have become the entrance gates to the perfectly straight streets. Pedestrians and cyclists, autos and cars all travel  through these temple towers  in the outer areas of the town just through the ordinary town streets.However the inner five prakarams are reserved for temple and treated as a  very holy area in which we can see only the que lines of the incoming  and outgoing devotees moving in hundreds and  thousands.

Here between the prakarams (compound walls constructed using huge blocks of  stones) there are long rectangular mantapams (ancient prayer halls ) with  imposing stone pillars with beautiful sculptures of gods  ) and corridors formed by dozens of such stone pillars.To the thousands of devotees every day visiting Srirangam  walking through  these mantapams decorated with sublime sculptures of gods, visiting the various  smaller temples , and walking in the awe inspiring corridors — creates a feeling that they are walking in a real heaven. Everywhere huge stone slabs  are used.The ceilings of mantapams are also  covered with divine sculptures.  Another fact I have not sufficiently mentioned here is creating  huge  sculptures of fierce lions, galloing horses, fierce crocodiles  etc on every pillar in the central mantapams.

We could not visit many important  temples in the complex  as our program  schedule was tight and time bound. But even after seeing   only a few  prominent temples in addition to watching  reclining  Lord Rangnatha  our hearts were filled with unbounded joy and  immense  spiritual happiness. We came from more than 1000 miles eager to see the great temple of Lord Ranganatha . A decades long desire about visiting some of the great temples of the south is being fulfilled now.

( e)

There are said to be many stone  inscriptions and historical records indicating that  great kings of  Chola,Pandya, Chera,Hoysala, Vijayanagar, Naik  dynasties  ruled over Srirangam. They ruled in  various periods from   7th to  17th centuries We  also saw numerous writings in old Tamil on the many stone blocks on our side as we walked through the temples.. It is said that mighty kings of Chola and Pandya dynasties built the original Srirangam temple. The emperors and kings gave huge cash and land grants .

 Srirangam temple  played a central  role in religious life of south India since the 11th century. The annual 21-day festival which is celebrated in December –January (Tamil month Margali ) attracts one million visitors. The temple was damaged  by the Delhi Sultan’s huge  armies in early 14th century. During that period  the main  Vishnu image with its jewelry was was removed by the priests and hidden  for fifty years in other faraway temples . The idol of goddess Laxmi(Ranganayaki) and other idols were  taken to Tirupathi and kept there for fifty years.

After the  Vijayanagara empire was established there was   200 years of stability and the temple was  fortified and the many concentric “prakarams” were built. Each prakaram  has majestic impregnable stone walls and gopurams(gateway towers of the temple). The outer two prakarams have become part of the modern town with big houses and markets and busy roads with overhead power lines. History shows that after the  Vijayanagara empire fell in 16th century the powerful Nayak kings and the Mughal commanders fought over control of the temple in the 17th century.The Nayakas fortified the temple town with more prakarams bringing the total prakarams to seven. The temple  was rich and was source of large revenue and later taken over by Arcot nawabs and then by French and British colonial forces .There was  missionary activity by both Christian and Muslim preachers to convert the Hindu devotees to their faiths  but they did not succeed. Finally after Madras Presidency was established the modern era of the great temple  started.

ABOUT THE GOPURAMS OF SRIRANGAM TEMPLE

The gopurams (the temple towers )make Srirangam temple look like heaven and the devotees are thrilled. There are 21 gopurams.  The main gopuram is called Rajagopuram and is 240 feet high and is said to be the tallest temple tower in the world. Except the Rajagopuram all  the other gopurams were built between the 12th and early 17th centuries. The construction of the Rajagopuram was ambitiously taken up by  king  Achyuta Deva Raya of Vijayanagara dynasty in 16th century .  Most unfortunately  the  Vijayanagar empire  was defeated  by combined armies of Deccan sultans in 1565 . The construction of the gopuram stopped for 400 years. The devotees glared for 400 years at the half complete structure but could do nothing.

Srirangam is situated about 10 kilometers  from thiruchrapalli  .Trichy is  an ancient historic  city existing since 300 BC and capital of the Pallava, Chola, and Vijayanagar dynasties from the 7th to the 17th century. The area  was  the scene of frequent wars between  Muslim kings,  Maratha armies,  British  and French colonial troops in  17th and 18th  centuries. The British colonialists defeated and drove out the French and established their empire. There was political stability and law and order .After India gained independence the governments were engaged in works of national reconstruction ,industrialization, and modernization of agriculture, modernization of higher education etc.

 The construction of the Rajagopuram tower was a gigantic work which only big governments can undertake. The sight of the incomplete rajagopuram greatly pained the  great spiritual leader  most respected  44th Pontiff of  the great Ahobil mutt–– His Holiness Sri Mukkur Azhagiya Singar . He was a great devotee of Lord Vishnu and had an  iron will and immeasurable self confidence. Against all odds he boldly declared in 1970s that  god himself ordered him to complete the work of constructing the Rjagopuram . Many people were amused at his words as they felt only government can do it. But the great Swamiji  had a clear vision about constructing the tower just like  a great engineer and great management expert. Soon seeing his highly systematic planning for the project large religious organizations , big retired engineers and repoted architects etc supported him. It wasa not long after that , admiring his great determination,  state governments, religious endowments departments , famed  mutts and other hindu  religious institutions and  individuals contributed money. It took eight years of colossal engineering work day and night and great expertise of famed traditional sculptors to  complete the work. Huge quantities of concrete,rock ,steel were used. Lifts,pumps and conctrete mixing machines etc were used. The magnificient Rajagopuram of Srirangam became a reality. All people were amazed  to learn  that the seer was ninety years old and that in spite of his age he  took  personally interest in every aspect of the work! The Rajagopuram was consecrated on 25 March 1987.  For the  Mahasamprokshanam in 2015  all the Gopurams were repainted and acquired a new dazzling appearance. We bow our heads in respect to the revered Pontiff of the Ahobila Mut.

 ****

The Vellai Gopura (white tower) on the east side of the fourth prakara and is 144 ft high . The word Vellai means white and also is a  symbol of purity of soul . It also was  the name of a temple dancer  of 14th century in Srirangam ,Tamilnadu. She was a very great devotee of lord Vishnu . Legend says that in the year 1323 when sultanate forces from North of India during their attacks on south Indian temple towns and  extensively damaged Srirangam temple ,she felt very sad and decided  to take revenge. She lured the commander to top of the towe and pushed him down to his death. Immediately she too jumped down and committed suicide. It is said that after Vijayanagar  kings drove out the invaders  the great Vijianagar commander Kempanna who was moved by her sacrifice ensured that a temple tower was named after her as Vellai Gopuram.