Pundarikakshan Perumal Temple

Getting there

• By air

  Tiruchirappalli International Airport (TRZ) serves the city the temple is 27 km from. The airport is about 5 km from the city centre.

• By road

  The temple is in Thiruvellarai village, 27 km from Tiruchirappalli, on the Thuraiyur road.

Why devotees come here

Pundarikakshan Perumal Temple is in Thiruvellarai village, on the outskirts of Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu. Vishnu is worshipped here as Pundarikakshan, with his consort Lakshmi as Pankajavalli. Its shrine stands on an artificial hill about 15 m tall, and it is one of the 108 Divya Desams.

According to Hindu legend, King Sibi Chakravarthi was with his warriors here when a white boar crossed his path. He chased it, and the boar hid in a hole. A sage then told the king to fetch 3700 Vaishnavas from the north, so that a temple for Vishnu could be raised on the spot.

The temple is believed to have been built by the Pallavas, based on three inscriptions in its two rock-cut caves. Two of those inscriptions date to Nandivarman II, from 732 to 796 CE, and one to Dantivarman, from 796 to 847 CE. A flood later damaged the temple badly, and a merchant repaired it around 1262.

The structure over the sanctum is called the Vimalaakkruthi Vimaanam. The unfinished cave temple at Thiruvellarai has a Shiva shrine in the east and a Vishnu shrine in the west, with a central bay between them. An archaeological study found the same layout in the rock-cut cave temple in Tiruchirappalli and the Pechipalai cave temple.

Festivals

• Tamil month of Chittirai (March to April)Chariot festival

  The temple's most prominent festival, for the surrounding villages as well. Devotees pull the chariot around the streets of Thiruvellarai.

Tips for your visit

• Annadhanam, the temple's free food scheme for devotees at the temple, is run by the Hindu Religious and Endowment Board.
• In the unfinished cave, the Shiva shrine is in the east and the Vishnu shrine is in the west.

Questions people ask