On Saturday (January 20), PM Modi visited the hallowed Sri Ranganatha Swamy Temple in Tamil Nadu’s Srirangam. PM Modi is the first prime minister of India to visit Sri Ranganatha Swamy Temple in Tiruchirappalli.
PM Modi wore a spotless ‘veshti’ (dhoti) and an ‘angavastram’ (a shawl) as he prayed with folded hands in the Lord Vishnu temple. PM Modi will hear verses from Ramayana at the temple. The visit comes two days before the Pran Pratishtha ceremony of Ram Lalla at the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.
An elephant at the temple premises blessed the Prime Minister and played a mouth organ as he visited the temple to offer prayers.
With PM Modi’s visit, fascinating facets of the Sri Ranganatha Swamy Temple, one of the most illustrious temples in peninsular India, have come to the fore. For instance, the temple has a deep connection with Lord Ram and Ayodhya. Lord Vishnu is the primary deity worshipped at the Sri Ranganatha Swamy Temple.
The legend has it that the chief deity worshipped at the Sri Ranganatha Swamy Temple is the same idol originally worshipped by Lord Ram and his ancestors from the Ikshavaku dynasty.
The presiding deity at Sri Ranganatha Swamy Temple was worshipped by Lord Ram and his ancestors
As per folklore, Sri Ram’s ancestors had received the idol from Lord Brahma himself. In the past, Ayodhya housed a revered idol that was worshipped daily. When Vibhishan requested a valuable gift from Sri Ram, the deity entrusted this idol to Vibhishan and instructed him to venerate it. While Vibhishan was en route to Lanka, the idol became permanently situated in Srirangam.
The mention of the deity is found in the renowned Sanskrit epic Ramayana, dated approximately between 800 to 400 BCE. This timeframe places the existence of the deity in the same era, suggesting that the temple has archaeological roots of at least 2,500 to 3,000 years, and traditionally, it is believed to be 30 lakh years old. The temple has been a significant landmark in the history of Vaishnavism, playing a pivotal role starting from the 11th century with the contributions of Ramanuja and his predecessors Nathamuni and Yamunacharya in Srirangam.
One of the interesting tidbits about the temple is that it has the largest temple compound in India and ranks among the most expansive religious complexes globally. Over the centuries, some of its structures have undergone renovations, expansions, and rebuilds, evolving as a living temple. A notable addition is the outer tower, soaring to approximately 73 meters (240 feet) in height, and completed in 1987. Often recognized as the largest functioning Hindu temple globally, with the larger Angkor Wat being the largest existing temple, Srirangam temple actively follows the Tenkalai tradition of Sri Vaishnavism.
The temple, once a central hub of the early Bhakti movement with a rich tradition of devotional singing and dance, saw an interruption in this tradition during the 14th century. Although revived in a limited manner much later, the temple’s history reflects periods of both adversity and restoration.
Hosting an annual 21-day festival during the Tamil month of Margali (December–January), the temple draws in one million visitors. Acknowledging its cultural significance, the temple complex has been nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is on UNESCO’s tentative list. In 2017, the temple achieved the prestigious UNESCO Asia Pacific Award of Merit for cultural heritage conservation, marking it as the first temple in Tamil Nadu to receive such recognition from UNESCO.