Srirangam

The temple and its artwork are a subject of numerous different Tamil legends covered in regional Puranic texts. Sriranga Mahatmyam, for example, is one of the compilations of the temple mythology about its origins. According to it, Brahma was performing austerities during the Samudra Manthana (churning of cosmic ocean), and Srirangam Vimanam emerged as a result. It remained in Satyaloka for ages, and was brought to Ayodhya by king Ikshvaku. After Rama, an avatar of Vishnu, had killed the evil demon Ravana, he gave it to King Vibhishana, who wanted to be with Rama. When Vibhishana passed through Tiruchi en route to Sri Lanka, where he had become the king, the Srirangam Vimanam would not move from the island. So, he gave it to a local king called Dharmavarma, if the king consecrated the Vimanam to face the south cardinal direction eternally, blessing him and Lanka. Hence, it is that the deity (in a reclining posture) faces South, his body aligned to the east–west axis. As per another legend, Sanaka, the four child sages, came for a darshana of Ranganatha in Srirangam. They were stopped by Jaya and Vijaya, the guardians of Vaikuntha. In spite of their pleadings, they were refused entry. In anger, all four of them cursed the guardians in one voice and left. The guardians approached Vishnu and told him about the curse. Ranganatha said that he would not be able to reverse the curse and gave them two options: be born as demons opposing Vishnu in three births or good human beings in the following seven births. Eager to be back with the Lord, the guardians accepted being demons and are believed to have taken the form of Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakasipu; Ravana and Kumbhakarna; and Sisupala and Dantavakra. Vishnu assumed four avatars – Varaha, Narasimha, Rama, and Krishna, respectively – to kill the demons in each one of those births. The Mahabharata says that after Arjuna's marriage with Ulupi (the snake princess), he went to the various pilgrimage centres in South India. Arjuna is said to have visited this temple and offered prayers to Ranganatha. There is a mandapa (hall) called Arjuna Mandapa in the temple. During the Alauddin Khilji invasion of the temple, the utsavar idol of Ranganatha was looted, while the Ranganayaki idol was buried under a tree. The Ranganatha idol was taken to Delhi and was about to be melted by Malik Kafur, but the Sultan's daughter (traditionally named Suratani) pleaded with him to give her the idol so that she could use it like a doll. Kafur agreed, and Suratani took the idol, placed it in her room, dressed it up with clothes, playfully fed it food and slept with the idol. Pleased by her service, Ranganatha kept on appearing in her dreams. A troop of brave Vaishnavites, disguised as entertainers, set out from Srirangam to Delhi. When they reached the Sultan's court, they entertained him. The Sultan was so pleased that when they asked for the return of the Ranganatha idol, he gave it back to them, upsetting Suratani. Suratani and Malik Kafur both followed the entertainers back to Srirangam. Suratani entered the temple first and, still not seeing the idol anywhere, immediately committed suicide in front of the sanctum door, symbolising that love brought back the idol. Kafur saw Suratani's dead body and was enraged, starting a horrible war that killed 13,000 devotees. The temple dancers, led by Vellai Ammal, seduced some of the soldiers and put them in a death trap. The idol, however, was smuggled to Tirupati. Since the head priest didn't know the idol was taken out again and assumed that the idol was still missing, he hastily ordered for a new similar idol to be created. When the original idol returned, the surviving devotees were confused as to which idol was the original one. A blind washerman then tasted the water offered to both idols and correctly identified the original one. The idol was reinstalled, the goddess idol was found again, and the temple was restored to its former glory by the successive dynasties. In memory of Suratani, the temple priests deified her and installed a painting (Suratani's Muslim identity meant that she could not be a stone idol) of her as a goddess in the Arjuna Mandapa. Today, Suratani is known as Thulukka Nachiyar and is offered Chapatis as prasada. Only during Abhishekams, the Ranganatha idol is dressed up in a Muslim-style lungi to commemorate his love for Suratani and to symbolise interfaith harmony. In total, Lord Ranganatha (Vishnu) of Srirangam is believed to have seven consorts, with Goddess Ranganayaki (Lakshmi) being the first and chief consort. The others are Goddess Bhudevi, Goddess Neeladevi, Andal, Kamalavalli (from the Uraiyur temple), Cherakulavalli, and Thulukka Nachiyar. Kamalavalli, Cherakulavalli and Thulukka Nachiyar are believed to be human royal princesses who were devoted to Ranganatha, and he married them due to their love for him. Kamalavalli is from the Chola dynasty, Cherakulavalli is from the Chera dynasty, while Thulukka Nachiyar is from the Delhi Sultanate. It was believed that when Ranganatha married these three princesses, Goddess Ranganayaki was upset and she distanced herself from him. She commanded her priests to keep her idol only in her shrine and nowhere else near her husband, earning her the epithet Padi Thandadha Pathni (The wife who never crosses her doorstep/limits). Even today, Ranganayaki and Ranganatha are seen together only once a year on the Panguni Uthram day (March–April), known as Serthi Sevai.