Venkatachalapathy Temple-Krishnapuram

 

We both belong to Tirunelveli Dist. Tirunelveli is a place that is worth a visit at least once in the lifetime. There are many places in Tirunelveli that attract many tourists towards the place. Some of them include dams, temples, sanctuaries, sculpture houses, waterfalls, and hills and so on. Apart from the places there food and tradition of this place are very rich and unique.

Tirunelveli's history dates back to 2000 year ago, and thus, the city is inarguably one of the best places to trace the stories of various dynasties and its legends.Whenver we came to our home  town we visit all temples and waterfalls etc. In our last visit we visited Venkatachalapathy temple.

 

Krishnapuram is a small temple village near Tirunelveli, The village is home to the Venkatachalapathy Temple, another grand architectural marvel Located about 7 kms from Tirunelveli city on the way to Tiruchendur Murugan temple. One of the best architecture temple in southern India. This temple devoted to Venkatachalapathy is having a sprawling complex containing a big prakaram for cirambulation

 

Here lies Sri Venkatachalapathy temple built by Sadasiva Devaraya in 9th century and extended by Naicker rulers two centuries later. During the Madurai Nayaka period. Inscriptions say the temple was built by Krishnappa Nayak, after whom the place is named. The temple is spread over an area of 1.8 acres. Originally, the temple had three praharams, built from solid granite.

 

 But the outermost praharam was demolished by an Izlamic general Chanda Sahib at the orders of Nawab of Arcot.

The principal shrine, fronted by a five-tier Rajagopuram is flanked by two simpler sub-shrines, to goddesses Alamelumanga and Padmavathi. They are both in seated posture. The main deity, Venkatachalapathy, is four-armed, standing and with the ubhaya nachiyars. Lord in Bogasthanam is with his consorts Sri Devi and Bhoodevi. The stoopas, shilpas though centuries old depict the carvers mind and the realities of the times with writings of 9th century visible.

 

There is a corridor before entering the main temple which has gigantic 15-20 feet bronze statues which is the highlight of the temple. The statues are so intricate inside staring on one side of the pillar and literally curving to the other side. there are 42 such statutes in one hall alone. Unfortunately it was very dark inside and we could hardly make out the beautiful statues without a good torch/flashlight.

In the outer corridor we can see statues (protected by steel mesh) as follows on entering to our right starting with

 

 

1) A Nomad in dancing pose,

 

2) A gypsy woman kidnapping a Prince on her shoulder (as per the tamil writing above the statue), On the same pillar we see a horseman with the legs of the horse on a person kneeling down.

3) Karna in a majestic standing posture. On the same pillar we have a smaller statue behind Karna

 

 

4) There is a beautiful Murti of KuravanA gypsy man kidnapping a Princess on his shoulder(as per the tamil writing above the statue).The grace in his stance has to be seen to be believed. The shilpi has caught him mid-motion. The Murti does not look status. It looks like he is going to complete the movement any moment. We can notice his ribs, the curve of his calves, the place where his hair bun bears the indent of the princess’s fingers, as she steadies herself. On either sides of the man we see a man on a horse and 2 smaller figures of men holding on to the gypsy as to preventing him from kidnapping. 

5) A statue of Arjuna with his bow in standing pose,

 

6) Another Statue of Nomad where astounding scuptures that are life size over five and a half feet, Nerves are seen in the human forms, All these sculptures were made from a single Granite stone,In one statue, a leg, extended into air is two and a half feet , it projects from the torso and this sculpture is also made of single stone.

In the statue of Manmatha (God of Love) , a Bow of Sugar Cane, which is his weapon is found. The bow, with its curved structure stands about five feet tall.

 

 In the Statute of Rathi, consort of Manmatha, one can find her cheeks puffed up swallowing Thamboola!  Her hairstyle and jewellery are exquisite. The Shilpi has carved her fingers with gap between them as she artistically holds a mirror. All this is done in one single block of granite!

There is a larger than life Murti of Arjun, the warrior. You can see the bamboo grooves of his bow, the proud half-smile on his face, his armour and his warrior like stance

An elephant and a Cow

 

The other fascinating sculpture here is that of two animals made out of one stone. As one looks from the left, one sees an elephant lifting its tusk. From the other side, though, this same image shows us a cow- truly a terrific piece of art.

 

When we visited this temple there is no visitors. Only we saw priest in sanctorum  and we workers cleaning the temple. Feel sad that such a heritage temple has to well maintained and lot of tourist must visit the place to see Lord and ancient culture and sculpture.  Sadly, the temple has ugly iron railings that are supposed ‘protect’ the Murtis, but serve as an eyesore! I really wish Hindu temples were managed better. Our ancestors went to great trouble to carve such exquisite Murtis, the least we can do is to look after them. Please visit Krishnapuram if you can.

I clicked few pictures with temple permission.