Karnataka Temples - 8. Thondanur Ramanuja Statue

The 41 feet Ramanujar statue is less than 5 minutes drive from the Nambi Narayana temple. I would say that it is just a photo op 📸.

The statue is beside the lake that Ramanuja created himself.

Karnataka Temples - 7. Thondanur Nambi Narayana

About 18 kms from Ananthazhwan avathara sthalam, and ~22 kms from Srirangapatna Ranganathaswamy temple, is the Thondanur Nambi Narayanan temple.

Swami Ramanujar stayed in Thondanur for 12 years. During his time there, he freed the king's daughter from a Brahma rakshasa and converted many people to vaishnavism. The Hoysala king Bittideva also changed to Vishnuvardana, and built 5 temples for Narayana called the panchanarayana temples. The wand used by Ramanuja to shoo the Brahma rakshasa is there at the Yoga Narasimha temple in Thondanur.

A point to note is that convertions happened in those days based on debates. Scholars used to debate their philosophies and the losing scholar many times converted to the other faith. Tough to imagine this in today's context where people don't even hear another person's view point, let alone evaluating it logically and accepting defeat. The debates that we watch in TV are just about who screams at the higher pitch 😮‍💨

The Nambi Narayana temple is one of the pancha narayana temples. The God in the Nambi Narayanan temple has the chakra and shangu interchanged in his hands depicting the Samaasrayanam pose, since many people were converted here. 

The temple area is vast. The dwajasthambam has Garudan, Anjaneyar, Swan and Simham on the four sides. The dwajasthambam looks straight when seen alone, but looks tilted when viewed from within the temple. The temple is about 1000 years old and the God's idol is about 5500 years old.

The moolavar is Nambi Narayana with Aravinda Nayaki thaayaar. The urchavar is Lakshmi Narayana with Bhoodevi thaayaar.

As I wrote in the earlier blog, the lord carries the name of Thondanur Nambi aka Ananthazhwan. 

This temple's timings are different from the norm. Other than the morning it is open from 3 to 5 in the evening. The temple closes at 5 PM since it is believed that Ramanujar worships the God in the evening in the form of a serpent. 

Photo from the internet, source 

Karnataka Temples - 6. Kirangoor Ananthazhwan Avathara Sthalam

My plan was to go from Srirangapatna to Thondanur. While traveling I noticed Google Maps show "Ananthazhwan avathara sthalam" on the way, about 4 kms from Srirangapatna. I thought of making a stop since there was still time for the Thondanur temples to open.

Ananthazhwan is known for his kainkaryan at Tirupati,  and for his staunch devotion to Ramanujar. Once while teaching a pasuram by Nammazhvar, Ramanujar wishes that one of his disciples should create a garden in Tirupati and perform flower kainkaryan to perumal everyday. Ananthazhwan took the responsibility and established the Ramanuja Brindavanam in Tirupati. I have not been to the brindavanam but it seems to be mapped in Gmaps https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZLFTmCQvjLNpfpS58. It is worth thinking about the fact that Thirumala did not have roads back then. It was a forest that was home to many wild animals, which made some people wary of climbing.

Stories about Ananthazhwan, and details of his compositions, can be found at https://guruparamparai.wordpress.com/2013/03/31/ananthazhwan/.

Let me come back from Tirupati to Thondanur.

The temple was closed when I went. Took few glimpses of the place that the great man was born, and proceeded further.

I had said earlier that I stopped at Kirangoor on the way to Thondanur. One of the deities in Thondanur is called Nambi Narayanan. Ananthazhwan is called Thondanur Nambi.