Vijayasana Perumal Temple

Sthala Purāṇam

Thiruvaragunamangai, the second of the Nava Tirupati, lies at Natham near Srivaikuntam on the Thamiraparani in Thoothukudi district. The presiding deity is Vijayasanar (Vijayasana Perumal), Vishnu in a seated (asana) posture, with his consort worshipped as Varagunavalli (Lakshmi). The sthala puranam preserves two accounts of the Lord's manifestation. In the principal Sri Vaishnava narrative, a Brahmin sage named Vedavith, who had devotedly served his aged parents on the Thamiraparani bank, longed for the darshan of Maha Vishnu after their death. Vishnu appeared to him in the guise of an old Brahmin and directed him to Varagunamangai as the ideal place for penance. There Vedavith performed severe tapas chanting the Asana mantra; pleased with his devotion, Vishnu appeared, granted him moksha, and consented to remain at the spot as Vijayasanar in the seated form the sage requested. Another version credits the long penance of the sage Romesar (Romasa), who performed tapas for several thousand years before Vishnu granted his prayer. Within the Nava Tirupati's scheme, in which the nine Vishnu temples are identified with the Navagrahas, Varagunamangai is the Chandra (moon) sthalam, hence also called Chandran Sthalam. The temple is built in the Dravidian style with a gopuram gateway tower. Nammalvar consecrated it through his Mangalasasanam in the Tiruvaymoli, and during the great Vaikasi Garuda Sevai festival the Alvar's idol is processed on the Anna Vahanam while his pasurams for each of the nine Thamiraparani shrines are chanted.

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