Friday 11 August 2017

Parikkal Lakshmi Narasimha Temple

Parikkal Lakshmi Narasimha Temple in Villupuram district in Tamil Nadu is the unique temple where both Narasimha and Lakshmi devi embrace each other. Usually in Lakshmi Narasimha temples, only Narasimhar is found to embrace Lakshmi devi.  

Narasimha Swamy embraces Lakshmi Devi with his left hand and Lakshmi Devi embraces Narasimha swamy with her right hand. The Moola Vigraha of Lakshmi Narasimha is as seen below,
It is one of the rare temples where both the Moolavar and Utsava Murty are Lakshmi Narasimha forms. There is a second utsava murty of narasimha in standing posture inside the Garba Griham.

During Swathi Nakshatra, the janma nakshatra of Narasimha, Abhishekam is performed to the Utsava murty as seen below,
The Google Map Location of the Temple in Villupuram district is as seen below,



Temple Entrance
Sthala Puranam
A raja named Vasantharaja wanted to build a temple for Lakshmi Narasimha swamy and approached his guru Vamadeva rishi to perform a yagna for the same. But a demon named Parikalasura came to destroy the yagna. Vamadeva rishi gave mantra upadesa to raja and asked him to hide nearby. But the asura tried to kill raja still, hence Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy manifested himself there and killed Parikalasura. Hence this Kshetram is known as Parikkal.

There is a unique Narasimha Sthambam here as seen below similar to other Narasimha Sthambam found in ancient Narasimha Temples like Simhachalam and Kadiri in Andhra Pradesh and Athazhanallur in Tamilnadu. This Sthambam is important as Narasimha Swamy himself came out of a pillar in order to kill Hirayakasupu and save Prahlada.
 Anjaneya in Two Forms!!

In the Vayu Disha or North Western Direction, two forms of Anjaneya namely Veera and Bhaktha Anjaneya are found in the Prakaram which is a very rare occurrence.

Hanuman himself being Vayu Putra or son of Wind God, here people pray for wellbeing in this sannidhi

Veera and Bhaktha Anjaneya

There is also a Sannidhi for Anjaneya outside the main temple as seen below,
Garuda Sannidhi
Kanakavalli Thayar
Varadaraja Facing Southern Direction
Moolavar Vimanam
Inner Prakaram
Outer Prakaram
Nagar Sannidhi

No comments:

Post a Comment