Celebrating the Azhwars and the Divya Desams of Lord Sriman Narayana!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Thiru Ninra Ur Divya Desam




One of the seven Divya Desams in and around Chennai.

[Click here for photos of this Divya Desam]

Location and Access:

The temple is located in ThiruninravUr, which is one of the stations on the Chennai-ArakkONam suburban train line. This station is approximately 35 km from Chennai Central station and the train journey takes about an hour. The temple is about 15-20 minutes by walk from ThiruninravUr station. Auto-rickshaws (tuk-tuks) are also available from the station to the temple.

The temple:

The temple is not very large and if not crowded, all sannidhis can be covered in less than 45 minutes. In this Divya Desam, we find the motherly love of the Divya Dampathi exhibited in ample measure – the thAyAr here is known as “ennai petra thAyAr” (literally, the Mother who gave birth to me) and the perumAL here is Sri Bhaktavatsala perumAL (He who has motherly love towards His devotees). Another name for thAyAr is Sri SudhA vaLLi. The temple has two prakArams and a five storied Raja gOpuram.

Legends and History:

Legend has it that VaruNA worshipped the Lord at this Divya Desam.
According to www.templenet.com, the temple has stone inscriptions dating back to the period of King Nandivarma Pallava (~500 AD) and rAjarAja chOzhA III (~1250 AD)

AzhwAr mangaLAsAsanams:

Sri Tirumangai AzhwAr 1089,1642

(pAsuram numbers are according to the number listed in any standard 4000 Divya prabandham book)

According to legend, Sri Tirumangai AzhwAr visited this Divya Desam but left without singing any pAsurams about the place. The perumAL from this Divya Desam followed AzhwAr all the way to the Divya Desam of Thiru kadal mallai (Mahabalipuram) and finally got AzhwAr to mention ThiruninravUr in his pasurams.

Sri ennai petra thAyAr samEtha Sri Bhakthavatsala perumAL thiruvadigaLaE saraNam.