Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple
Hindu temple dedicated to Ranganatha, a reclining form of Hindu deity, Vishnu located in Srirangam, Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, India . the early medieval Tamil literature canon of the Alvar saints from the centuries AD and is counted as the first and foremost among the 108 Divya Desams dedicated to Vishnu. Vaishnava temples in South India rich in legend and history. Its location, on an island in Cauvery
river, has rendered it vulnerable to natural disasters as well as the
rampaging of invading armies – Muslim and European – which repeatedly
commandeered the site for military encampment.The temple is enclosed by 7 concentric walls termed prakarams outer courtyard or mathil suvar with a total length of 32,592 feet or over six miles. These temple has 21 gopurams towers, 39 pavilions, fifty shrines, Ayiram kaal mandapam a hall of 1000 pillars and several small water bodies inside. The space within the outer two prakarams outer courtyard is occupied by several shops, restaurants and flower stalls. Non-Hindus are allowed up to the second prakaram outer courtyard but not inside the gold topped sanctum sanctorum.
Kovil is generally used in Tamil to signify any temple, for many Vaishnavas the term Kovil exclusively refers to this temple, indicating its extreme importance for them for saivas and all other Tamil people the term kovil refers to Thillai Natarajar Golden Shrine Chidambaram Temple. The presiding deity Ranganathar is praised in many names by his devotees, including Nam Perumal our god in Tamil, Azhagiya Manavaalan beautiful groom in Tamil.
The complex houses shrines of dozens of forms of Vishnu including Chakkarathazhwar, Narasimha, Rama, Hayagreeva and Gopala Krishna. There are separate shrines for Ranganayaki and the major saints in the Vaishnava tradition, including Ramanuja. The Venugopala shrine in the south-west corner of the fourth enclosure of the temple is the work of Chokkanatha Nayak. An inscription of 1674 specifies this Nayak king as the patron. The exterior of the vimana and attached mandap hall have finely worked pilasters with fluted shafts, double capitals
and pendant lotus brackets. Sculptures are placed in the niches of
three sides of the sanctuary walls; maidens enhance the walls in
between. The elevation is punctuated with secondary set of pilasters
that support shallow eaves at different levels to cap larger and smaller
recesses. The sanctuary is crowned in the traditional fashion with a
hemisphrical roof. The double-curved eaves of the entrance porch on the
east side are concealed in a later columned hall. Dhanvantari,
a great physician of ancient India is considered to be an incarnation
of Vishnu – there is a separate shrine of Dhanvantari within the temple
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