Thiru Kavalampaadi Temple

Thiru Kavalampaadi or the Gopalakrishna Perumal Templeis located in Tanjore district of Tamil Nadu. The place is 5 miles away from Vaiteeswaran kovil railway station. The temple is one of the 108 Divya desams dedicated to the Hindu Lord Vishnu. The temple is built in the Dravidian style of architecture. There are 4 daily rituals conducted in the temple. Bus facilities are available from the railway station. However, there are no decent accommodation facilities.

According to legend, Lord Shiva started dancing in fury at Thirunangur after the death of his consort Uma, due to the sacrifice of Daksha. Each time a lock of his hair fell and touched the ground, eleven other forms of Lord Shiva would appear. The Gods were worried that if this continued, entire earth and all their creations would be destroyed. They prayed to lord Vishnu to help. Lord Vishnu listened to them and appeared before Lord Shiva. On seing Vishnu, Lord Shiva’s anger was appeased. But to counteract the eleven forms of him that had been created, he asked lord Vishnu to also appear in eleven forms. The eleven forms in which Lord Vishnu appeared in Thirunangur were all in different places. Those eleven places in thirunangur are where the eleven  temples are located.

Another legend says that Kundalai was sent to disturb Saint Dhurvasa’s penane. However, when she did so, the Saint cursed her that she would be born as a hunter’s daughter. In her next life, the curse took effect and she was born as a hunter’s daughter and married another hunter. One day, Lord Varuna, the rain god, saw her and fell in love with her. As a result, she bore a son, Vishwaksenar.  Vishwaksenar did a lot of penance and as a reward was made chief of the Nithyasuris. Vishwaksenar wanted to have a darshan of Lord Krishna. So, he again performed penance. Pleased with his devotion, Lord Krishna appeared before him along with his wives, Rukmini and Satyabhama.

The temple timings are from 8 AM to 10 AM and from 5 PM to 7 PM. Temple rituals are performed by the priests on a daily basis as well as during festive season.  The priests belong to the Vaishnavaite community, a brahmin sub caste. There are 4 temple rituals daily:

Ushathkalam at 8 in the morning

Kalasanthi at 10 in the morning

Sayarakshai at 5 in the evening

Ardhajamam at 7 in the evening.

Each of the rituals have 3 procedures which are the alangaram ( decoration), the neivethanam (food offering) and deeparadanai (lighting lamps) for Lord Vishnu and his consort. During the rituals, religious hymns and texts are recited from the Vedas by the priests. There are weekly, fortnightly and monthly rituals performed in the temple.

During the new moon day of the Tamil month Thai, the festival deity of Thirumangai Azhwar is brought to the temple from Thiruvali-Thirunagari. The Thirumangai Azhwar Mangalasasana Utsavam is celebrated in the Tamil month of Thai (January–February). The highlight of the festival is Garudasevai, an event in which the festival images of the eleven Thirunangur Tirupathis are brought on mount designed like Garuda, called Garuda Vahana, to Thirunangur.

The festive image of Thirumangai Azhwar is also brought on a Hamsa Vahanam (palaquin) and his paasurams (verses) dedicated to each of these eleven temples are recited during the occasion. The festival images of Thirumangai Alvar and his consort Kumudavalli Naachiyar are taken in a palanquin to each of the eleven temples.

The verses dedicated to each of the eleven temples are chanted in the respective shrines. This is one of the most important festivals in the region which draws thousands of visitors