Sri Mannar Rajagopalaswami temple, palayamkottai

Temple History:

 

The demons were giving lot of troubles to Indira, the king of Devas.  Once, when Arjuna went to Indira’s kingdom, Indira told him that there were 3 crore demons in a place called Thoyamapuram situated in the midst of the ocean and that they were harassing the Devas.  He asked Arjuna to defeat and kill them and free him and his subjects from their terror.

Arjuna went to the island and challenged them for a war.  It was not that easy to fight them as every killed demon came back alive.  A voice from the space told Arjuna that he could conquer them only if the demons mocked at him.

Arjuna pretended as if he was retreating.  The demons mocked at him.  Arjuna immediately applied his Pasupatha weapon gifted by Lord Shiva and destroyed them wholesale.  Pleased Indira gifted the Gopalawami idol which he was worshipping.

Few days later, Lord Kanna appeared in the dream of Arjuna and asked him to leave the idol in Ganga which Arjuna did.  The Pandya king Sripathy, while bathing in Ganga, got the idol, brought it to this place, installed and built this temple and named the Lord Azhagia Rajagopalan.

Greatness Of Temple:

One Vishnu Priyan was the priest of the temple.  His wife delivered only female children successively.  The priest prayed for a male child to succeed him in the service of the Lord.  As the next delivery also was of a female child, irate priest threw the Arti plate on the Lord as He did not respond to his prayer and this caused a small injury on the nose of the Lord.  When he returned home, he found that the female child was a male one.

Trembling with fear, the priest returned to the temple and fell at the feet of the Lord and begged His pardon.  The Lord appeared before him as Gopalaswami with His consorts Bama and Rukmini and came to be praised as Azhagia Mannar.

The Lord graces from the sanctum sanctorum as Vedanarayana Perumal with Mothers Sridevi and Bhoodevi.  In the inner mandap, the Lord graces with Mothers Vedavalli and Kumudavalli.  On the tower, He graces as Azhagia Mannar Rajagopalaswami with Mothers Sridevi and Bhoodevi.

Brahmotsavam Invitation 2012