About the temple
The temple is among the 108 divyadesams of Sri Vaishnavas and comes under Malai/Chera naatu divyadesams. The presiding deity is Sri Adi Keseva perumal in reclining posture and thayar is Maragatavalli thayar. The temple has been built in pure Kerala style and is popular as Dakshina Vaikuntam. Thiruvattar temple is older than Trivandrum Anantha padmanabha swamy temple and there are lot of similarities in the structure of the two temples.
The Lord is huge at 22 ft with more than 16000 saligramams and bigger than Anantha Padmanabha swamy. There are three doors on the single stone mandapam from where one can have darshan. The temple is huge and has been built like a fort. It is interesting to note the differences too - while Adi Keseva perumal's feet is on the left side and head on the right, its the reverse in Anantha Padmanabha swamy temple. There is a Shiva lingam right below Anantha Padmanabha swamy's hand on the left side and the same remains in the left side in Adi Keseva perumal temple besides the Lord's feet. Lord Brahma emerges from the navel in Thiruvananthapuram while he is not present in Tiruvattar. There is also a Krishnar sannadhi in the prakaram.
Thanks to Sri Sankaran Nampoorthiri for the additional information as below -
1. The two temples are located at where The Great sage Vilvamangala Swamiyar had seen the Lord Vishnu resting on Anantha, the first time. Anantha was HUGE then, with one end at where the Padmanabhaswamy temple is and the other end where Tiruvattar is located.
2. Vilvamangala Swamiyar requested Lord to reduce his size so that he could actually see Lord in a 'managable' size! He then gave darshanam in a smaller size, (still quite large compared to Anantha-sayanams elsewhere) at BOTH these locations.
3. At Tiruvattar, Lord is shown Padaadi Kesam (Feet first, left to right), while at Padmanabhaswamy Temple Lord rests in Kesaadi Paadam (Head first)
Lord is known as "Kesava' because of His saving the world from an Asura called 'Kesa', who somehow wrangled a boon of Immortality. The entire episode of Kesa and Kesi etc. (another story!) happened here. To cut a long story short, Kesa is still alive and placed forcibly under Lord, between Him and the Anantha!
Anyway, this being the place where Lord got his name FIRST, here He is known as 'Adi (First) Kesava.
'Yathokthakari temple' (SONNAVANNAM SEITHAN PERUMAL)at Kanchipuram has one similarity with Tiruvattar that maybe worth noting here- it is also in the 'Padadi Kesham posture'! Originally it was not so. but a series of events lead Lord to leave the temple, and the request of an Alwar' He returned.. but changed His position to let the World know that he had gone an returned- to ensure that the set of events are remembered!
Thanks to Sri Sankaran Nampoorthiri for the additional information as below -
1. The two temples are located at where The Great sage Vilvamangala Swamiyar had seen the Lord Vishnu resting on Anantha, the first time. Anantha was HUGE then, with one end at where the Padmanabhaswamy temple is and the other end where Tiruvattar is located.
2. Vilvamangala Swamiyar requested Lord to reduce his size so that he could actually see Lord in a 'managable' size! He then gave darshanam in a smaller size, (still quite large compared to Anantha-sayanams elsewhere) at BOTH these locations.
3. At Tiruvattar, Lord is shown Padaadi Kesam (Feet first, left to right), while at Padmanabhaswamy Temple Lord rests in Kesaadi Paadam (Head first)
Lord is known as "Kesava' because of His saving the world from an Asura called 'Kesa', who somehow wrangled a boon of Immortality. The entire episode of Kesa and Kesi etc. (another story!) happened here. To cut a long story short, Kesa is still alive and placed forcibly under Lord, between Him and the Anantha!
Anyway, this being the place where Lord got his name FIRST, here He is known as 'Adi (First) Kesava.
'Yathokthakari temple' (SONNAVANNAM SEITHAN PERUMAL)at Kanchipuram has one similarity with Tiruvattar that maybe worth noting here- it is also in the 'Padadi Kesham posture'! Originally it was not so. but a series of events lead Lord to leave the temple, and the request of an Alwar' He returned.. but changed His position to let the World know that he had gone an returned- to ensure that the set of events are remembered!
How to reach
The temple is near Kanyakumari/Nagercoil/Trivandrum and the nearest railheads are Trivandrum and Nagercoil junctions. The nearest airport is at Trivandrum.
Pushkarni and vimanam
The temple tank is called Vattar theertham and vimanam is called Ashtanga vimanam.
Temple timings
The temple is open in the mornings from 5 am to 12 noon and in the evenings from 5 pm to 8 pm.
Temples in proximity
Thiruvanparisaram, Thiruvananthapuram Anantha Padmanabha swamy temple, Thirukurungudi Nambi temple, Vanamamalai divyadesam, Kanyakumari amman temple, Suchindram temple
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