Ulagalantha Perumal Temple Kanchipuram

Ulagalandha Perumal Temple is a temple dedicated to Vishnu located. It is one of the 108 Divyadesam dedicated to Vishnu, who is worshipped as Ulagalantha Perumal and his consort Lakshmi as Amudavalli.

Shrine’s History

Temple is 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

Ulagalantha perumal Kanchipuram2 — Temple

Legends Associated with This Shrine

Bhagavata Purana describes that Vishnu descended as the Vamana avatar to restore the authority of Indra over the heavens, as it had been taken by Mahabali, a benevolent Asura King. Bali was the grandson of Hiranyakshipu, the son of Prahlada. King Mahabali was generous, and engaged in severe austerities and penance and won the praise of the world. With the praise from his courtiers and others, he regarded himself as the all-powerful in the world. Vamana, in the guise of a short Brahmin carrying a wooden umbrella, went to the king to request three paces of land. Mahabali consented, against the warning of his guru, Sukracharya. Vamana then revealed his identity and enlarged to gigantic proportions to stride over the three worlds.

He stepped from heaven to earth with the first step, from earth to the netherworld with the second. King Mahabali, unable to fulfil his promise, offered his head for the third. Vamana then placed his foot and gave the king immortality for his humility. In worshiping Mahabali and his ancestor Prahláda, he conceded sovereignty of Pátála, the netherworld. Some texts also report that Vamana did not step into the netherworld, and instead gave its rule to Bali. In giant form, Vamana is known as Trivikrama. The legend is associated with the Thrikkakara Temple in Kerala and also with this temple and Ulagalantha Perumal Temple, Tirukoyilur.

Ulagalantha Perumal Kanchipuram7 — Temple

Architectural Relevance of This Shrine

The temple has an area of about 60,000 square feet and has a three-tiered rajagopuram with seven kalasas. The temple houses four Divya desams on its own – they are Thirukkarvaanam, Thirukaaragam, Thiruooragam and Thiruneeragam. It is believed that all the shrines were probably separate temples, but the circumstances which lead do these temples getting housed in the Ulagalantha Perumal temple is not known. Thirumangai Azhwar has sung praises of all the four temples in a single verse. The temple tank, Naga Tirtha, is located outside the main temple complex. The temple is revered by the verses of Tirumangai Alvar and Thirumazhisai Aazhwar. Thaayar of the temple is Amudhavalli and the festival deity of the temple is Loganathan. The image of Ulagalantha Perumal is over 35 ft in height depicted with his left leg at a right angle to the body and parallel to the ground.

The right leg is seen placed on the head of Mahabali with two fingers on his left hand stretched out referring to the two steps he took to measure the two worlds and the stretched finger on his right hand indicating the question the posted to Mahabali as to where he could place his third step. The roof of the sanctum, the vimana has an elevated roof to accommodate the huge image of the presiding deity.

Shrine’s Map Location and How to Go There

MAP INSTRUCTIONS The big red marker represents the latitude & longitude values of this shrine on map. Please click on View larger map link on this map to see a bigger map on dedicated Google Maps in a new tab

By Road

The city of Kanchipuram is well connected with the other part of the states and it is few km from the Quadrilateral National Highway. There are frequent bus services from Chennai and it takes 2- 3 hours to reach. The Chennai Metropolitan and the state express transport operate the services.

By Rail

Kanchipuram is connected with the southern part of the rail network and few trains are running through Kanchipuram. Suburban trains are running between Kanchipuram and Chennai beach on specified intervals.

By Air

Chennai, the nearest international airport, is situated around 75 km away from Kanchipuram. Both public and private transport facilities are available at the airport.