KALYANAVENKITESA PERUMAL TEMPLE,NARAYANAVANAM, NEAR PUTTUR, CHITTUR DISTRICT- ANDHRAPRADESH-Compiled(Part 1)
Dear friends, The Kalyana Venkatesa Perumal Temple in Narayanavanam is asignificant temple dedicated to Lord Venkateswara, specifically in his Kalyana Venkateswara form.It's located 2 km east of Puttur and 45 km south of Tirupati, in AndhraPradesh, India. The temple is known for its association with the marriage of Lord Venkateswara andGoddess Padmavathi, where they are believed to have stayed for six months aftertheir wedding in this place and then moved to Tirupathi, according to the legends. Newlywedsoften visit this temple to offer prayers, seeking blessings for a happy marriedlife. Today my posting is about this temple. Hope a divine reading. Gopalakrishnan 4-8-2025 Introduction Narayanavanam is a town in Tirupati district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It isthe headquarters of Narayanavanam mandal in Sri Kalahasti revenue division. Thetown is known for Kalyana Venkateswara Temple dedicated to Lord Venkateswaraand constructed in 1541 AD. According to Skanda purana, Lord Venkateswara marriedPadmavati at Narayanavanam. The Kalyana Venkateswara Temple at Narayanavanam isbelieved to have beenoriginally built by King Tondaman, brother of Padmavati. Legend Once several rishis headed by Kashyapa began to perform asacrifice on the banks of the Ganges and requested Sage Bhrigu to identify theGod who could be worshipped in their sacrifice. Sage Bhrigu first went to SatyaLoka, where he found Lord Brahma, reciting the four Vedas in praise of LordVishnu, with each of his four heads, and attended upon by his consortSaraswati. Lord Brahmadid not take notice of Bhrigu offering obeisance. This made Bhrigu to conclude that Lord Brahma was unfit forworship and he cursed Brahma that no one will worship him inKaliyuga. At Kailasa, Bhrigu was notallowed inside by the guards as Lord Shiva was romancing with his wife Parvati. The sagecursed Lord Shiva saying Shiva will be worshipped only in the form of Lingam. At Vaikuntam, Lord Vishnu was reposing on Adisesha with SriMahalakshmi in service at His feet. Finding that Lord Vishnu also did not notice him, thesage was infuriated and kicked the Lord on His chest, the place whereMahalakshmi resides. At once, Lord Vishnuhastened to apologize to the angry sage and pressed his feet to allay the paincaused to Bhrigu’s leg. While doing so the Lord smartly removed the eye in the foot of the sage,thereby stripping Bhrigu of his special powers. Thereupon, the sageconcluded that Lord Vishnu was the most supreme of the Trimurtis and told therishis the same. Goddess Mahalakshmiangered by the action of her Lord in apologizing to Bhrigu leaves Vaikuntha andresides in Karavirapur (now known as Kolhapur). After the departure ofMahalakshmi, a forlorn Lord Vishnu left Vaikuntam and took abode in an ant-hillunder a tamarind tree, beside a Pushkarini on the Venkatachalam Hill, meditating for the return of Lakshmi,without food or sleep. This was the place where earlier Lord took theform of Varaha (wild boar) to rescue Mother Earth from the deep ocean bykilling the demon Hiranyaksha who dragged the earth into deep ocean. Deeply concerned about Lord Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva decidedto assume the forms of a cow and its calf to serve Him. Surya, the Sun Godinformed Mahalakshmi of this and requested her to assume the form of a cowherdand sell the cow and calf to the king of the Chola country. The king of the Chola country bought the cow and its calf andsent them to graze on the Venkatachalam Hill along with his herd of cattle. Discovering Lord Vishnu on theant-hill, the cow provided its milk, and thus fed the Lord. Meanwhile,at the palace as the cow was not yielding any milk the Chola Queen reprimandedthe cowherd severely. To find out the cause of lack of milk, the cowherd followedthe cow, hid himself behind a bush and discovered the cow emptying her udderover the ant-hill. Incensed over the conduct of the cow, the cowherd tried to hit the cow with his axe. Lord Vishnu rises fromthe ant-hill to receive the blow and saves the cow. When the cowherd saw theLord bleed at the blow of his axe, he fell down and died of shock. When the cow returned with blood stains all over her body theChola King wanted to find out the cause of the cow’s terror, and followed herto the scene of the incident. The King found the cowherd lying dead on theground near the ant-hill. LordVishnu rises from the ant-hill and curses the King saying that he would becomean Asura (demon) because of the fault of his servant i.e., cowherd. When the King pleaded innocence, the Lordblessed him by saying that the king will be reborn as Akasa Raja and the cursewould end when the Lord will be adorned with a crown presented by Akasa Raja atthe time of his daughter Padmavati’s marriage with the Lord. With these words Lord turned intostone form. Thereafter, Lord Vishnu in the name of Srinivasa, decided tostay in Varaha Kshetra, and requested Sri Varahaswami to grant Him a site forHis stay. Srinivasa built a hermitage and lived there, attended to byVakuladevi who looked after him like a mother. Vakuladevi is regarded as thereincarnation of Yashoda who was the foster mother of Lord Krishna in Dvapara yuga. When Yashoda complained to Lord Krishna thatshe couldn’t witness any of his marriages, Lord Krishna assured her that shewould get such opportunity later in Kali Yuga. When King Akasaraja was tilling the earth for performing a sacrifice,he found a box in which there was a girl child on a lotus in thePadmapushkarini situated at present day Tiruchanur in Andhra Pradesh. She cameto be known as Padmini (Skanda purana) and Padmavathi (Bhavishyottara purana). Vedavathi was the daughter of Brahmarishi Kushadhvaja, whowas the son of Brihaspati, the guru of the devas. Kushadhvaja wanted to get hisdaughter Vedavathi married to God Vishnu as her husband. Ravana, the king ofLanka found Vedavathi sitting inmeditation as a tapasvini and was captivated by her incredible beauty. Heproposed to marry her and when she rejected, he tried to assault her. Thefurious Vedavathi cursed Ravana that she would be born once more, and would bethe cause of his death. She subsequently leapt into the ritual havan that waspresent in her vicinity, immolating herself. When Vedavati enters the fire toimmolate herself, the fire-God Agni provides her refuge. In later stage, when Sita is to be kidnapped by Ravana, Sita seeks shelter in the fire andexchanges places with Maya Sita, who is Vedavati in her previous birth.Ravana abducts Maya Sita, mistaking her to be Sita. After Ravana is killed bySita’s husband Rama, Sita and Maya Sita switch places in the Agni Pariksha. Vedavati asked Rama to be herhusband. Rama, being of utmost loyalty to Sita, declines, but promises to marryher in his next incarnation. Thus, Vedavati appears as achild in a box on a lotus when Akasaraja was tilling the earth for performing asacrifice, and she is named Padmavati. One day, Lord Srinivasa, who was hunting, chased a wildelephant in the forests surrounding the hills and enters a garden, wherePrincess Padmavati and her maids were picking flowers. The sight of theelephant frightened the Princess and her maids. But the elephant immediatelyturned around, saluted the Lord and disappeared into the forest. Srinivasa returned to the hills inhaste, leaving his horse behind. Vakuladevi found him lying on his bed, not interested inanything and realises that he had fallen in love with Padmavati, daughter ofKing Akasaraja. Meanwhile, Akasa Raja and his queen Dharanidevi learn aboutPadmavati’s love for Srinivasa of Venkatachalam Hill. Akasa Rajaconsults Brihaspati who advises that their marriage would be in the interest ofboth the parties. Kuberalends money to Lord Srinivasa to meet the expenses of the marriage. As the marriage took place in Narayanavanam, Padmavati’sbrother King Tondaman built two Temples; one is at Narayanavanam, another inTirumala to commemorate this occasion. Narayanavanam is one of thefew temples where we can see both Venkateswara Swamy along with Padmavati Deviin one complex. Temple history The temple was rebuilt in 1245 AD by NarasimhadevaYadavaraya. Subsequently in 1541-42 Penugonda Veerappa again renovated thetemple. In 1943 further renovation to the temple was done by Surajmal Karva,the manager of the principality of Alwar Veera (Rajasthan). On 29th April, 1967 thetemple came under the supervision of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam. Architecture The main Raja gopuram of the temple was built by the King SriKrishna Devaraya which has seven tiers and rises to 150 feet height. The secondgopuram was built by Veera Narasimha Devaraya with three tiers. Deities Lord Venkateswara is seenfacing east in this temple. His consort Lakshmi is seen residing on his bosom. A dasavathara band adores hiswaist. A garland of salagramas (ammonite fossil stones) along withConch and Discus adorn his shoulders. He carries a hunting sword in his hand. Sub temples This Temple has four small shrines of Sri Padmavati, Andal, Sri Prayaga Madhavaswami and Sri Varadaraja Swami. At the entrance in front of the Sanctum is thesmall GarudalwarSannidhi. In addition to these, there are five more temples to the mainone. These are dedicated to Sri Harihareshwar Swami with his consort ChampakValli, Sri Veerabadhra Swami, Sri Sakthi Vinayaka Swami, Sri AgastheeswaraSwami with his consort Marakathavalli and Sri Avanakshamma. (Amnam means Vedaor sacred tradition, Akshi means eye, Amnakshi means Goddess who possessesvedas as her eyes. As time passed by Amnakshi turned to Avanakshamma). It is said that Adi Shankarainstalled sree chakra in the Avanakshamma temple. Iwill continue as part 2 the balance of the topic. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/1668838027.964950.1754287155831%40mail.yahoo.com.
