Appakkudathaan Perumal Temple, Koviladi
அப்பக்குடத்தான் பெருமாள் கோயில், கோவிலடி
Why this temple matters
At Koviladi on the Kaveri below Srirangam, Vishnu reclines as Appakkudathaan, the lord who holds a pot of appam — a Divya Desam sung by the Alvars, and the only shrine where sweet appam is offered to the lord each night. It is one of the five Ranganatha shrines of the river.
History
The temple stands at Koviladi — Tiruppernagar of the old Chola country — on the bank of the Kaveri a short way below Srirangam, whose great temple the Vaishnavas call simply the Kovil; the name Koviladi marks the village that lies downstream of it. Dedicated to Vishnu as Appakkudathaan, it is a Divya Desam, one of the 108 abodes sung by the Alvar saints in the Nalayira Divya Prabandham, and one of the five Pancharanga Kshetrams strung along the river. Its stone shrines are of Chola antiquity, carried forward by the patrons of the later centuries.
Architecture
Built in the Dravidian manner, the temple opens through a gateway tower to the sanctum of the reclining lord, worshipped here as Appala Ranganatha, with the Goddess Kamalavalli in her own shrine. The presiding image is shown holding a pot of appam, the sweet that gives the lord his name of Appakkudathaan — a form found at no other Divya Desam — and the pillared halls before the sanctum carry the marks of the temple's long Chola descent.
Legends
The temple's story tells of a king — remembered as Upamanyu — who, hunting, killed a brahmin by mistake and, stricken with grief, renounced his throne and wandered until he reached Tiruppernagar. There an old man begged of him a pot of neyyappam, saying only that could satisfy his hunger; the king filled the pot, and the old man revealed himself as Vishnu. From that day the lord is called Appakkudathaan, he of the pot of appam, and to this day sweet appam is offered to him each night — an offering unique among the Divya Desams.
Festivals
The temple keeps the Vaishnava festivals of the year — Vaikunta Ekadashi, the Brahmotsavam, and the days sacred to the Alvars whose hymns first sang this shrine — with processions along the river village. The nightly offering of appam is itself a daily rite that pilgrims come to witness, and the car festival draws the surrounding delta country.
The Experience
Koviladi is a quiet river shrine within easy reach of Srirangam and Tiruchirappalli, rewarding for the pilgrim who follows the Kaveri from one Ranganatha to the next. Its nightly pot of appam and its place among both the Divya Desams and the five Rangas make it a small but singular link in the long chain of the reclining lord.