Adinathar Perumal Temple, Alvarthirunagari
ஆதிநாதர் பெருமாள் கோயில், ஆழ்வார்திருநகரி
Why this temple matters
At Alvarthirunagari on the Tamiraparani, Vishnu stands as Adinathar — the Jupiter shrine among the nine planetary Tirupati, and the birthplace of Nammalvar, foremost of the Alvars, who sang all these shrines.
History
Alvarthirunagari — the sacred town of the Alvar — is the birthplace of Nammalvar, the greatest of the Alvar saints, and stands at the heart of the Nava Tirupati on the Tamiraparani; its lord is Adinathar, the primordial one. It is one of the 108 Divya Desams, the abodes of Vishnu sung by the Alvar saints in the Nalayira Divya Prabandham, and one of the Nava Tirupati — the nine temples of the Tamiraparani, each held as a planetary shrine of the Vaishnavas. Among the Nava Tirupati it is honoured as the shrine of Jupiter, Guru; the old tamarind tree under which Nammalvar is said to have sat in silent meditation is revered here.
Architecture
Built in the Dravidian manner of the Pandya country and its later patrons, the temple is entered through a gateway tower and gathered around the sanctum of the presiding Vishnu, with the Goddess in her own shrine. Here the lord is worshipped as Adinathar, with the Goddess Adinathavalli; the shrine is the devotional centre of the nine. Pillared halls open before the sanctum, in the temple manner of the deep south.
Legends
The Nava Tirupati are worshipped together as the nine planetary shrines of the Vaishnavas: where the Shaiva tradition of the Kaveri keeps nine separate Navagraha temples, here the nine planets are honoured across the nine abodes of Vishnu on the Tamiraparani, all sung by Nammalvar, the foremost of the Alvars, whose own birthplace is Alvarthirunagari among them. At Alvarthirunagari the planet is Jupiter, Guru. It is told that Nammalvar, born here, sat in wordless meditation beneath a tamarind tree until Madhurakavi Alvar drew forth his song — the Tiruvaymoli that hymns these very shrines.
Festivals
The temple keeps the great Vaishnava festivals — Vaikunta Ekadashi, the Garuda Sevai when the nine are worshipped in a single round, and the days of Nammalvar and the Alvars — with processions through the riverside villages. The Tamiraparani's own festivals draw the surrounding country.
The Experience
A quiet riverside Divya Desam among the nine, rewarding for the pilgrim who follows the Tamiraparani from one Tirupati to the next. As the shrine of Jupiter, it takes its place in the single pilgrimage of the Nava Tirupati that gathers the nine planets into the abodes of Vishnu.