LORD NARSIMHA DARSHANAM AT SHOLINGUR IN TAMILNADU

Sholingur is a small town in Vellore district  in Chennai city in South India. Lord Narasimha temple and Hanuman temple are  located on top of two separate hills in this town and  are  the most popular Sri Vaishnaivite temples in India. Located about 90kms west of Madras (and about 25kms from Arakkonam and 40kms from Tiruttani), atop a hill on a single rock  is the Lord Narasimha Divya Desam in Sholingur, also called Chozha-Simha-Puram and Thiru Kadigai.

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The Yoga Narasimha Swamy temple is situated on this  hillock is  at a height of 750 ft, and there are 1305 steps. This is also referred to as UtheeCheerangam(North Srirangam).There are two temples of significance here- the Yoga Narasimha temple at Periya Malai (the big hill) and the Yoga Chathurbhuja Anjaneyar temple at Chinna Malai (the small hill). Bhaktha Anjaneya also was doing thapas (penance) here. The Lord  pleased with him  gave His Shanku and chakram to him .This is the only place where Lord Anjaneya is giving darshan in sitting position as yoga Anjaneya adorned with sangu chakram in upper hands and with ,japa malai and counting with fingers on lower hands. Anjaneyars temple is just opposite to Lord Narasimha’s temple on a smaller hill.

sholinguuruAfter killing the demon named Hiranya, it is believed that Lord Narasimha reached Sholingur and settled down here. As he gave darshan to Sapta rishis(seven saints) for a kadigai time duration (24  minutes), the site is called as Kadigachalam. This place was also called as Chola Simha Puram, which later became Sholinga Puram and ultimately to ‘Sholingur’.

sholingurThe Lord Shri Yoga Narasimhar atop the Sholinghur hill is  glorified as  “AKKARAKANI” meaning sweetest fruit by Thirumangai azhwar. sholiguru

An interesting legend is connected with this holy place . In this HOLY PLACE Ghatikachalam  there were two Sri Vaishnava brothers Swamy Periyappan and Siriyappan the descendants of Swami Mudaliyandan who was the nephew and disciple of Acharya Ramanuja. They were well versed in sasthras . They were doing kainkaryam to the devotees of Lord Narasimhar . Dhoddachar was born on auspicious star uthradasha to Siriyappan . He learned Vedas and divya prabandam from Periyappan who was his acharya and mentor. Slowly with his steadfast devotion , He became an  upasaka of Sri Sudarsanazwar. He continued his  upasana for twelve years  Lord Sudarsana  was pleased with his devotion  and  appeared before  his devotee . Lord  said,” I am very much pleased with your devotion. What do you want?” Dhoddachar said,” I want to have darshan of Lord Nrusimhar .” Sri Sudarsanazwar told him to follow him. He took him to a cave and showed him Lord Nrusimha’s idol with His upaya Nachimar Sridevi and Bhoodevi .Dhoddachar was very happy to see Lord Nrusimha in yoga nishta pose in a calm and serene pose  and christened Him as Akkarakani as described by our Azhwar ( Thirumangai Azhwar )

He decided  to build a temple for the Lord and conduct all uthsavas and daily rituals.

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King Achutha Devaraya who was related to Krishna Devaraya was ruling over Kanchipuram. He came to know about Sri Dhoddachar  intention to build a temple to Lord Akkarakkani, (The Yoga Nrusimha.) He came to Ghatikachalam and paid his obeisances to  the great devotee Dhoddachar. He rode on his favourite high breed horse and to honour Dhoddacharya he arranged to carry him on a pearl palanquin. When they reached a village called Erumbi Achutha Devaraya’s horse suddenly fell on the ground and died. Achutha Devaraya felt very sad to see this. Dhoddachar saw this and he got down from the palanquin. He took out water from his Thirtha pathram and sprinkled it over the horse. Presto ! The horse got up as if it woke up from sleep.

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Achutha Devaraya was wonder struck to see this and he prostrated before  acharya and thanked him immensely for giving new life to his horse. He also gave Erumbi village and some other places nearby to him. Dhoddachar built a temple for Lord Nrusimha with the help of his disciples and also built a tank which is called Thakkan Kulam. He was now happy that his wish to build a temple was fulfilled. He also made Thiruvabaranams (jewelery) to the Lord and started celebrating all the  uthsavas with the help of his shisyas and Srivaishnavas. He visited Kanchipuram “PeraruLaLa PerumaL” who was his favourite Deity regularly . Every year he used to go to Kanchipuram on the third day of Brahmmothsavam when LORD VARADARAJAR PeraruLaLa perumal would give darshan on Garuda vahanam. But one year he was indisposed and so was unable to go to Kanchipuram.

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On the  day of garuda vahanam  early morning he took  a dip  at thakkan kulam              ( pond ) . He felt very sad and prayed to Lord Devaraja at the bank of the tank chanting his Holy names .  Lord Devaraja was very much pleased with his deep devotion and he flew to Ghatikachalam on Garuda and gave darshan to his dear devotee . Dhoddachar was overwhelmed with emotion and his eyes were filled  with tears of joy and gratitude. He prostrated before the Lord repeatedly  and praised the Lord with five slokas which is known as Devaraja Panchakam. Even now on Garuda vahana sevai  day early morning when Lord Devaraja comes out of the entrance of the temple, he stops for a few minutes and He  is covered by an umbrella to symbolize this incident marking the incident of LORD giving darshanam to his dear devotee . There is a temple for Lord Devaraja on the bank of Thakkan kulam where the moolavar is giving Darshan on Garuda Vahanam which is a very rare sight.

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On Vaikasi visakam day in  this place Ghatikachalam Garudothsavam for utsava murthi is  conducted with due respects  to the devotee Dhoddachar .

All glories to Sri Doddaachryar!

Adiyen Ramanuja dasan
 Photos : Courtesy : Google Pics

About Kazhiyur Varadan

Am seeker of true knowledge, living at Hyderabad working with Department of Atomic Energy . Interested in meeting devotees and love travelling to all holy places . Major interest is to interact with devotees and be of some use to the world in spreading LORDs divine play . This blog is an attempt of knotting a garland of priceless pearls from Srivaishnava Divya desam ..Divya leelai ..Divyaanubhuthee shared by zillions of hari bhaktaas . There can be few photographs which would have been uploaded from google images to practically have the feel of the holy place and be of some service to the devotees . In case the owner of the pictures /images has any objections for this adiyen shall remove the same . If any of the images presented here violates copyright issues or infringes anyone copyright or are not under "Fair use", then please bring it to our notice, It will be removed ASAP . Anything erroneous in adiyens post is completely my fault/ignorance and anything noteworthy is solely due to my poor understanding and seek pardon . All the divine pastimes shared are from the lectures and the ones shared by several advance devotees .All the compliments and praise belong to the great Spiritual masters for their mercy on adiyen ( your servant ) to share and re share in this blog to remain that bliss … IMPORTANT ------------------- 1) Spiritual Material posted in this blog are just for information purpose and for spreading awareness. Few divine pastimes which was shared in discourses and the holy place is being re shared which are subject to mistakes or discrepancies with time . So, kindly , don't be offensive and don't post any aggressive or illegitimate comments on the blogs due to the differences in opinions. 2) This blog may contain links to other sites through advertisement, user comments, articles. While Adiyen tries to link only to sites that are safe and secure, Adiyen am not responsible for the content or the privacy practices employed by other sites., since the linked site is not under the control of me, am not responsible for the contents of any linked site or contents of the links mentioned in the links site. Adiyen am providing this link just for informational and academic purposes only. 3) This blog may contain inaccurate, incorrect and clerical errors. Adiyen do not warrant nor assure the accuracy/correctness/completeness of the materials/articles or the reliability of any advice, opinion, comment or other information displayed or distributed through this blog . 4) We are in the service of spreading the divine pastimes of LORD and HIS devotees .Please correct adiyen in any shortcomings .