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108
Divya DesangaL
Welcome
to our Virtual tour. Now we will go you through the Divya
Desams with rare and beautiful images of PerumaL and Thayar
(wherever available). Since we would like to present unique and rare
images it will be a long journey and we would appreciate your
patience. Now sit back and with a click of your mouse enjoy a
visit to divya desams. Forward
In
Hinduism, Sri Mahavishnu is the most powerful and
much-worshipped God. As India is surrounded by oceans, in the
same way the devotion to Lord God known as Bhakti is also spread and
spred throughout
our country. Emperumaan Sriman Narayanan who is the Paramathma
is manifest in all souls the Jeevathmas, is
found from Himalayas to Kanyakumari in various thirukkolamgal
(posture or position) in various sthalams (places). Out
of these Sthalams, Alwars, who are said to be the amsam of
Sriman Narayanan, have sung Mangalasasanam (sung in praise of
The Lord God) on the Perumal and there are totally 108 Sthalams
where Alwars have done Mangalasasanam on the Perumal. These
108 Vishnu Sthalams are called as "Divyadesams",
literally meaning Holy Shrine spots. The
108 Divya Desams or Tirupatis (Sriyah Pathihi) are sacred
places were sung upon by Azhwars, the ultimate devotees of
Narayana. There are 106 on the Indian Subcontinent (105 in
India and 1 in Nepal). The remaining two, Tirupparkadal
and Srivaikuntam,
can be accessed only when one leaves this world. The Tirupparkadal
is the "ocean of
milk" and the Srivaikuntam is the domain where LORD
NARAYANA presides. Here
we go: In
between the Pallava and the Chola kingdom lay an undefined
small region called the Nadu nadu or mid country. The Pallava
country was also known as Tondaimandalam or Tondai nadu which
was boundary on the north by the Svarnamukhi River and on the
south by the South Pennar. The Chola country known as Chozha nadu lay between the South Pennar and the Cauvery rivers. The
Pandya kingdom lay south of the Cauvery right down to the
sea. The western half of the extreme south (ruled by the Chera
dynasty) extending to the Arabian sea was called the Malai
nadu or Hill country. The remaining part of India to the north
of the Tondai mandalam was known as the Vada nadu or Vadugar
nadu (the country of the northerners). Accordingly, the
listing arranged below shows the
sacred places on regional basis adopted by
the Sri Vaishnavas. In
the SriVaishNava sampradAyam, a divya dEsam is a temple whose
perumAL has been sung about by atleast one AzhvAr. This is
called ``maNgaLAsAsanam". There are 108 divya dEsams, 106
of them on this earth and 2 that are not. By far, the majority
of these divya dEsams are in Tamizh nAdu. There are a few in
the current day state of Kerala, and a couple in the current
state of Andhra PradhEsh. There are also a few divya dEsams in
Northern India. Following
is a list of 108 Divya Desam presented in multiple sections
according to their location. We have also provided the list of
Azhvaar Mangalaasaasanam for each of the Divya Desam. Each
divya dEsam has the paasuram number as found in the NAlAyira Divya Prabandham
known as DrAvida Veda Sagaram Among
the twelve aazhvaars, only 11 composed hymns on the 108 Divya
dEsams. Poykaiaazhvaar composed hymns on 6 Divya dEsam,
boothathaazhvaar on 13, peyaazhvaar on 15, thirumazhisai
aazhvaar on 17, nammaazhvaar on 37, kulasekaraazhvaar on 9,
periyaazhvaar on 18, Sri Andaal on 11 and thondaradip
podiyaazhvaar on 1, respectively. Madhurakavi Azhvaar
glorified Nammazhvaar in his hymns. I
would like to thank Sri N. Sampath of Madras, India, who took
time and effort to gather the details regarding the 106 Divya
Desam. Welcome to our Divya desam page. Probably you may be aware that the Srivaishnava shrines and Holy stations known as Divya Desam or Divya Kshetram that were sung by divine saints known as Azhvars (who lived in Southern part of India in this Kali Yuga). There are 108 divya desams in total and two of them are not in this material world. They are Parama padam and ThiruppaRkadal. Other 105 temples are located in India and 1 divya desam is located in Nepal (SaLagramam). We will present you some basic information about each temple and would take you through all the relevant information right from how to reach there, Stay details etc . Since there are plenty of similar sites which basically provide beautiful images of the Lord God known as Perumal in these DivyaDesams we will concentrate only on rare information on each of the Kshetram. Having said about the glory of divya desams, it is a sad truth that most of the temples are in need of financial support even to take care of day to day rituals. Those days the ruling kings have given plenty of fertile lands and jewels to temples for its maintenance and festivals known as utsavams; now the temples not being looked after properly. We, the devotees of the Sriya: pathi should do our best to take care of these temples. Please come forward and choose one divya desam of your choice and support it for at least daily ritual. I can guide you through how to go about on undertaking this kaimkaryam .Also please visit the divya desams when ever possible and seek the blessings of Emperuman Lord Sriman NARayaNa, there. HE is patiently waiting for us to bless us and that is the only reason for HIM to be here in this material world. Those days Azhvars, particularly Thirumangai Azhvar has visited as much as 87 divya desams on foot and sung poem in His glory, (Mangalasasanam to Lord - PerumaL.) Now with the easily accessible facilities of multi-mode transportation, it is more easier to visit the temples. So make a vow to yourself to visit divya desams first around your home town and then expand your visits to other areas. For your convenience we have **grouped the divya desams in an order which will facilitate an easy Kshetraadanam known as Tour - A Divya DEsa YAtra. Thanks for your interest. Hope you will enjoy these pages. Please do leave your feedback, suggestions & comments in the guest book. ** Though the listing of pages (Numbering from id161.shtml to id268.shtml) are according to the original Kshetra listing and sequence, the links provided above are differently arranged for easier access so as to prepare your itinerary in a less time consuming way with shortest possible routes. This is just based on grouping the temples with its location-wise. Also, a separate page dedicated to the Divya DEsa Divya Thampathi NAmAvaLi is provided. Divya
desams in Chozha naadu(Present
Tanjavour,Trichy districts)
001.Srirangam
(Aranga Maanagar, Thiruvarangam) Divya
desams in Nadu naadu (Near Cuddalore)
041.Thiruvahendrapuram (Thiruvaheendipuram) Divya
desams in Thondai naadu (Madras,Kanchi areas)
043.Kachchi,Aththigiri(Kanchipuram,
Kancheevaram, Kanjeevaram) Divya
desams in North India (Vada naadu)
065.AyOdhdhi Divya
desams in Malai Naadu (Kerala)
076.Thiru
naavaay Divya
desams in Paandiya Naadu (Madurai,Srivillipuththur,Thirunelveli
areas)
089.Thiruk
Karungkudi Divya
desams in out of this world.
107.Thirup
paaRkadal Among the 108 Temples known as Divyadesam for Srivaishnavites, only 106 visibly located on the mother Earth. Rest two known are (the most Srivaishnavites would like to visit on attaining the Moksha, to liberate themselves from rebirth) known as Thiruparkadal and Sri Vaikuntham - The Abodes of Sri Maha Vishnu. These are the places worshipped and sung by great Tamil Saints known as Alwars, the saintly poets who immersed themselves in the divine ocean of Lord Vishnu. Divyadesams are also Divya Kshetrams. Those who have seen these two places are not with us to elaborate and those who elaborate about these places are never seen it! (Kandavar Vindadillai, Vindavar Kandadillai!). Yet, the great Maharishis and Munis and Sages, who could visualize these places with their sheer power of Njana Drushti had given us some light on the two Eternal Divya Desa kshetraams. Thus we could get some know on these two most important Abode of Sri Maha Vishnu.
Emperumaan, Lord Sriman Narayanan is found in various Thirukkolam. The Thirukkolam (Appearance of His revered Idols) in 108 Divyakshetrams are listed below:
Kidantha Thirukkolam (Sleeping Posture) - 27 Divyadesams Veetrirundha Thirukkolam (Sitting Position) - 21 Divyadesams Nindra Thirukkolam (Standing Position) - 60 Divyadesams
Out of these 108 Divyadesams, as we have seen that The Lord ( Perumal) is appearing in various Thirukkolam (Postures), he is also facing his Thirumugham (Face) on various directions and giving his seva darshan, as below:
The Lord appears facing Towards East direction at 79 temples, facing towards West direction - 19, facing towards North direction - 3 and facing towards South direction in 7 temples.
My sincere and heart felt thanks to Sri Ingimedu Ranganathan (known as Murali of Hyderabad) and his father - my maternal uncle Pt. Ingimedu Narasimhan (Chellappa) for making and presenting these pages a grand one. All the credits goes to Mr. Ingimedu Ranganathan for his full efforts in taking time to type, decorate and make it a presentable article with beautiful photograph of the Lord Sriman NArAyaNa. May Sri Lakshmi Nrusimha shower His blessings to the family of Sri Ingimedu Chellappa without whose help these pages would have been a distant dream for me. May every visitor to these pages, too get the Blessings of Lord Sriman NArAyaNA. Rare Images and beautiful photographs of all Srivaishnava Divya Desam are published in 3 different pages, with each page providing 36 images. I split these images into three pages to save uploading time of the images. These are quite apart from the other photographs of many Divya Kshetrams published under the Image Gallery. Here below are the links for Images: Images 1 - 36 Images 37 - 72 Images 73 - 108 Click here to view all 108 photographs & images at a single location. (It might take a bit longer to load all images in a single page). Mukkur - TRS Iyengar
To proceed with the Virtual Divya Desa Yatra, please click on the link for each Kshetram provided 001 to 108 above. For easy navigation, the Link provided in each page with marking to previous & next pages, but according to sequence listing. A special mention about the wordings used in these pages for the non-Tamil persons to understand, a brief Glossary: Emperuman, Emperumanaar, Perumal: Lord God Sriman NArAyaNa (Sri Maha Vishnu) PirAtti, Devi, NAchhiyAr: Goddess Sthalam: Place Kshetram, Divya Desam: Divine Place MangaLAsAsanam: Poem recited by the Azhwars in praise of the Divine place & Lord they worshiped there PAsuram: Poem in cuplets Prathyaksham: His persona-fids appearance Rishis, Munis: Sages & Saints Shabam: Curse Tapas: Penance Thirumugam: Divine Face ThirukkOlam: Divine posture Varam: a Boon from the Lord God Yatra: Pilgrimage
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