Adinatha Perumal Temple, Alvarthirunagari
Thirukkurugur (Alvarthirunagari)
Photo: Ssriram mt · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
One of the Nava Tirupati (associated with Guru/Jupiter) and the birthplace of Nammalvar himself.
Sthala Purāṇam
The Adinatha Perumal Temple at Alvarthirunagari, anciently Thirukkurugur, on the bank of the Thamiraparani in Thoothukudi district, is the principal and head temple of the nine Nava Tirupati Divya Desams. The presiding deity is Adinathar (Adinathan), 'the First Lord,' a self-manifested form facing east, with Adinathavalli (Kurugur Nachiyar) as Thaayar. It is held to be an Adi (primordial) temple where Vishnu himself performed penance, and the name Kurugur is linked to the Lord acting as Guru, teaching the sacred mantra to Brahma, making it a Guru Kshetram. Above all, this is the birthplace of Nammalvar, foremost of the Alvars, born here as Maran (Sathakopan) to Kariyar and Udayanangai. According to the legend the infant was utterly silent, responding to no stimulus; placed by his parents at the feet of Adinathar, he rose, climbed into a hollow in the sacred tamarind tree, sat in lotus posture, and meditated in silence for sixteen years without food or water. The tamarind tree (Thiruppuli Alvar) is venerated as Lakshmana in tree-form, sheltering him. The scholar Madhurakavi Alvar, seeing a bright light shining in the south, followed it to the tree and posed a riddle: 'If the small (soul) is born in the body of the dead (matter), what will it eat and where will it lie?' Nammalvar broke his silence answering 'That it will eat, there it will lie,' and Madhurakavi became his disciple. Nammalvar composed four works, the Tiruviruttam, Tiruvasiriyam, Periya Tiruvantati and Tiruvaymoli, totaling 1296 pasurams. In the Navagraha scheme this is the Guru (Jupiter) sthalam.
Mangalāśāsanam — the Āḻvār pāsurams
The Lord Adinathan (Adinatha Swamy) with Adinatha Valli Nachiyar of Thirukkurugur (Alvarthirunagari) is glorified by:
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