Our introduction to the Varadaraja Perumal Koyil was to find ourselves deep within the Ramar Utsavam, already on-going (it had started on March 19, and would run till April 12). This was already Day 20, almost the end! Ample proof that this work of temple documentation cannot happen by “finishing one temple and then moving to another,” but that all temples need to be followed simultaneously. The methodology we’d need to adopt for this work became clear at this point.
We went at 715pm, directly to a mandapa on Shankardas Chettiar street, two roads from the temple towards the Atithi hotel crossroads. This place was once a nandavanam which has now been paved and built over by the family who bequeathed it to the Perumal temple. There’s a 1919 stone inscription indicating who built it. The family’s home remains next door.
The elderly man whose family made this donation to the temple now lives in Salem, he claimed to be the 7th generation continuing this tradition. You can see the temple gopuram from the entrance to their mandapa area, a special point of happiness and pride. It was amazing to hear how much these lineage traditions are valued, treated as sacred, and upheld generations later.
Normally, utsava murtis from the main temple do not visit peoples’ homes. But this is an exception, which the elders have made arrangements for and the family takes this relationship very seriously. The murtis are brought here, a small puja performed, deeparadhanai, and then koyil prasadam for all present. Then the murtis are taken on a street parade and eventually to the main temple by later in the evening (when Arun went back it was past 10pm, and the saattrumurai was going on at the Kodandarama shrine).
We learned of how the Rama-Sita-Lakshmana-Hanuman figures were found floating in a large thotti or basin on the ocean (she postulated that the idols may have been placed there in Mughal times) and there was some speculation about how such a heavy container and idols could have floated to have been rediscovered and brought to the temple. The thotti sits now at the entrance to the Kodandarama mandapam in the Perumal Koyil.
The Bhattacharya tells us about the structure of the 25 day utsavam: Garbotsavam or the 9 gestational days preceding Navami, which is of course the Janmotsavam, Navami, the day of Rama’s birth. This is followed by Ayodhya Utsavam, on the 3rd day of which is the Thirukalyanam and the 5th day of which is the Pattabhishekam. The event seems to wind to a close when the murtis are brought to this family’s home (this happens thrice in a year: Masi maham, Aadi Pooram, and during the Navami Utsavam).
Later, the Bhattacharya at the moolasthanam tells us of the Narasimha (now at the back of the Perumal shrine, facing the kulam, west) being the adi-moolar–the deity originally present on the site, before this became a temple dedicated to Varadaraja Perumal. These stories of how temples come into being as this long process of accrual, discovery, recovery, bequeathments and restorations is fascinating and overwhelming at the same time. We need to connect it better in our minds to stories of the emergence of Varadar, too.