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My most favoured divya kshetram- Srivilliputtur

From the Bhakti List Archives

Venkat Iyengar S. • August 14, 1998 


   Sri Vatapatrasayee Perumal Thiruvadigale Saranam
       Sri Periazhwar Thiruvadigale Saranam
  Sri Andal sametha sri Rangamannar Thiruvadigale Saranam

The glory of SRIVILLIPUTTUR and sri ANDAL has been extolled by most of our 
Acharyas and Vidwans of our sampradayam and occupies a vast literature.

with the current discussion about the best divya  desam  I would 
like to highlight the importance and unique
features of the Divya kshetram Srivilliputtur with my limited
knowledge

      This is the blessed land where BHOOMA DEVI incarnated as Sri ANDAL
in periyazhwar's nandavanam and gave us the jewel among the prabhandams
the "Thiruppavai" which is the most popular and well known work
among the prabhandams.

        Sri Ramanujar had a particular liking for Thiruppavai and he
used to exhort other Bhagavathas and Sishyas to do regular anusandhaanam
of Thiruppavai.

        This is also the birthplace of one of our greatest azhwars
Periyazhwar who had the very rare anugraham of the lord which manifested
in him expounding the supremacy of sriman Narayana in the court of the 
Pandya king directly through his grace(the lord sat on his tongue)
and also compose the Thirupallandu wishing the lord long long years
of life which earned him the special honour and title of PERIAZHWAR

        Thus this is the only kshetram which can claim to be the
birthplace of 2 of the 12 azhwars.

              The Sri Andal Thiruther is the largest and the tallest
ther among all the Divya kshetrams and where can one hope to get the
darsanam of the utsavamoorthy's continuously for more than a day
than at Srivilliputtur during the thiruther utsavam.

               This is one of the very few kshetrams where you can
enjoy the araiyar sevai during Margazhi utsavam.After all this sevai was 
(and is) the dearest to the lord who granted the 64 araiyar families
of thirukurangudi whatever they wanted after enjoying their service.
This is the only divya desam where the lord is able to enjoy the araiyar
sevai thrice during the Margazhi utsavam even today.

              Comming back to the Adi thirunal utsavam anyone who gets 
a good view of the krishnankovil sayanam sevai on the yettam thirunal
will be simply motionless and spellbound and will not be able to
move from there unless pulled by the temple volunteers

             Sri ANDAL presented to the lord the garlands worn by her
and overpowered the lord with her beauty.Thus she made lord Ranganatha
utterly dependent on her and married him in srivilliputtur (Again
this kshetram was blessed to be the place of their Thirukalyanam)
She continues to reside in srivilliputtur with sri Rangamannar
at her father's house

            I would thus vote for Srivilliputtur as my most
favoured Divya Desam

adiyen

venkat  s iyengar