Varadaraja Perumal Temple, Kanchipuram
வரதராஜ பெருமாள் கோயில், காஞ்சிபுரம்
Why this temple matters
In the Vishnu quarter of Kanchipuram, Varadaraja Perumal presides from the little hill of Hastagiri as the lord who grants boons — one of the foremost abodes of Vishnu in the south, famed for its Vijayanagara hall of a hundred pillars and the fig-wood deity that rises from the temple tank once in forty years.
History
The Varadaraja Perumal temple is the great Vishnu shrine of Kanchipuram, standing in the eastern part of the city long known as Vishnu Kanchi. It is counted among the 108 Divya Desams sung by the Alvar poet-saints, and tradition ranks it with Srirangam and Tirumala among the holiest Vaishnava shrines of the south. Its origins reach into the Pallava age, and it grew under Chola patronage before the Vijayanagara emperors raised its most celebrated structures in the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries. The temple is bound to the memory of Ramanuja, the eleventh-century teacher of Vishishtadvaita, who lived and worshipped in Kanchipuram, and it remains one of the living centres of Sri Vaishnava devotion.
Architecture
The temple is built on and around Hastagiri, the small 'elephant hill', with the sanctum of Varadaraja raised upon it and reached by a flight of steps. The vast walled complex is entered through towering gopurams and encloses the temple tank, the Ananta Saras. Its supreme artistic treasure is the hundred-pillared marriage hall of the Vijayanagara period, whose piers are carved with rearing horses and warriors and chained stone rings cut from single blocks — among the finest sculpture of that age in the Tamil country. On the ceiling near the sanctum are the famous gold and silver lizards that pilgrims reach up to touch. Everything is worked in the mature Dravidian manner of pillared halls, sculptured mandapas and elemental stone.
Legends
The temple's founding legend tells that Brahma performed a great horse sacrifice, the Ashwamedha, on this spot to bring Vishnu before him, and that the lord appeared as Varadaraja, the giver of boons, rising from the sacrificial fire on the hill of Hastagiri. The original image of the deity was carved from the wood of the sacred fig, the athi tree, and is called Athi Varadar. For its protection this fig-wood form is kept submerged in the temple tank and is brought out for worship only once in forty years, an event that draws immense crowds; the stone Varadaraja receives the daily worship in the meantime. The name Varada means simply 'the one who grants' — the god who answers the devotee's every prayer.
Festivals
The temple's calendar turns on the Brahmotsavam in the Tamil month of Vaikasi, when Varadaraja is carried in procession on a succession of great vehicles, including the garuda vahana that draws the largest gathering. Vaikunta Ekadasi in the cool season, the float festival on the Ananta Saras, and the observances of the Sri Vaishnava tradition fill the year. Rarest of all is the once-in-forty-years descent, when the Athi Varadar is lifted from the tank and displayed for weeks and the whole city turns out to see the fig-wood lord.
The Experience
A visit to Varadaraja completes the pilgrim's Kanchipuram, joining the great Shiva and Goddess temples of the city with its foremost abode of Vishnu. The climb to the hilltop sanctum, the shaded immensity of the hundred-pillared hall and the search for the little lizards on the ceiling make the temple a place to linger. Kanchipuram, famed also for its silk, lies an easy journey inland from Chennai and pairs naturally with the coastal Pallava monuments of Mahabalipuram.