Vaikunta Perumal Temple, Thiru Parameswara Vinnagaram

Sthala Purāṇam

The deity at Thiru Parameswara Vinnagaram is Vaikunta Nathan (Paramapada Nathan), with consort Vaikunthavalli Thaayar. The temple is among the most historically significant Pallava monuments of Kanchipuram, built in the 8th century by the Pallava king Nandivarman II Pallavamalla (datings range from the late 7th to later 8th century CE). It was originally called Paramechura Vinnagaram in Tamil and Vishnugriha ('Vishnu-house') in Sanskrit, signifying a royal house for Parameshvara, here an epithet of Vishnu, not Shiva. Its defining feature is a three-tiered sanctum with three vertically aligned shrines presenting Vishnu in three postures: seated on the ground floor, reclining on the first floor (opened to devotees on Ekadashi), and standing on the second floor, offering a rare three-form darshan within one vimana. The cloister walls carry a famous sequence of bas-relief panels depicting Pallava dynastic history, tracing the lineage of the kings, with battle scenes, coronations, and notably the search for and finding of a successor after Paramesvaravarman II's early death, the boy who became Nandivarman II and built this temple. The local sthala puranam recounts that sage Bharadvaja performed penance and married a celestial nymph, and that Vishnu, in the guise of a hunter, gave the resulting child to an heirless Pallava king, a legendary parallel to the historical succession of Nandivarman II. The shrine is glorified in the Nalayira Divya Prabandham by Thirumangai Alvar (ten pasurams), confirming its place among the 108 Divya Desams.

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