Alagar Koyil

Azhagar Koyil
village
Image of Kallazhagar Temple, after which the village is named
Coordinates: 10°04′27″N 78°12′52″E / 10.074136°N 78.214356°E / 10.074136; 78.214356Coordinates: 10°04′27″N 78°12′52″E / 10.074136°N 78.214356°E / 10.074136; 78.214356
Country  India
State Tamil Nadu
District Madurai
Languages
 • Official Tamil
Time zone IST (UTC+5:30)

Alagar koyil is a village in Madurai district in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The history and living of the village is centered around Kallazhagar Temple. Constructed in the Dravidian style of architecture, the temple is glorified in the Divya Prabandha, the early medieval Tamil canon of the Azhwar saints from the 6th–9th centuries AD. It is one of the 108 Divyadesam dedicated to Vishnu, who is worshipped as Kallazhagar and his consort Lakshmi as Thirumamagal.[1]

Temple

One of the broken gateway towers of the temple

Kallazhagar temple covers an area of about 2 acres (0.81 hectares) and has a five-tiered gopuram (gateway tower). The temple in enclosed in a rectangular enclosure with huge granite walls. The central shrine houses the image of the presiding deity, Uragamellayan Perumal in reclining posture on a snake bed similar to that of Srirangam Ranganathaswamy temple. The images of Sridevi and Bhudevi are also housed in the sanctum. There two life size images of Narasimha, the avatar of Vishnu. One of them is shown holding the demon Hiranya and other slaying him.[2]

The temple houses some rare Vijayanagara sculptures similar to the ones present in Soundararajaperumal Temple, Thadikombu, Krishnapuram Venkatachalapathy temple, Srivilliputhur Divya Desam and Jalakandeswarar Temple, Vellore.[3]

References

  1. ↑ M. S., Ramesh (1993). 108 Vaishnavite Divya Desams: Divya desams in Pandya Nadu. Tirumalai-Tirupati Devasthanam.
  2. ↑ Rao, A.V.Shankaranarayana (2012). Temples of Tamil Nadu. Vasan Publications. p. 229–31. ISBN 978-81-8468-112-3.
  3. ↑ S., Gopalakrishnan (December 1996). "The Raṅga-maṇḍapa of the Tāṭikkompu Temple A Study of an Iconographic Programme of the Vijayanagara Tradition". East and West. 46 (3/4): 415–431. JSTOR 29757285. (Subscription required (help)).


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