Govindaraja Perumal Temple, Chidambaram (Thiruchitrakoodam)

Sthala Purāṇam

Thiru Chitrakoodam, the Vishnu Divya Desam set within the great Thillai Nataraja temple at Chidambaram, enshrines Lord Govindaraja in bhogasayanam, reclining upon Adisesha, bearing conch and discus and facing east; the festival form is revered as Devadhi Devan. It is one of only two Divya Desams located within a Shiva temple complex, the other being Nilathingal Thundam Perumal at Kanchipuram. The consort Goddess is Pundarikavalli Thayar. The ancient Thillai forest (Tillaivanam) gave Chidambaram its name; the appellation Chitrakoodam is linked in tradition to Lord Rama, who, while searching for Sita, likened the beauty of this place to the northern Chitrakoota. Govindaraja is said to have descended here for the sage Kanva and for the Dikshitars who serve the Thillai temple. The shrine is famed for a turbulent episode in its history: in the twelfth century the Chola king Kulottunga II had the Govindaraja image uprooted and cast into the sea; Sri Vaishnava tradition associates Acharya Ramanuja with the effort to recover and honour the Lord, and the festival image is connected with the Govindaraja shrine at Tirupati during this period of persecution. The reclining Lord was reinstated at Chidambaram much later, in the sixteenth century, by the Nayak ruler Krishnappa Nayaka. The vimana is the Sathvika Vimana, and the temple tank is the Pundarika Pushkarini. This Divya Desam was hymned by Kulasekhara Alvar and Thirumangai Alvar in the Nalayira Divya Prabandham.

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