PERIYALWAR - INCARNATION OF GARUDA AND FATHER OF ANDAL
SRI VILLIPUTTUR - has a legendary story behind its temple of VATAPATRASAI (Sreemannarayana resting on banyan leaf). Once the whole area was a thick forest. It is near a town PUTTOOR in Pandya kingdom. In Puttoor many scholars and pundits used to stay. Usually tribal hunters live in the forest. The chief of such tribe in this area had two sons VILLI and KANDAN. The sons grew strong and once they went inside the forest and spotted a tiger. But quickly the tiger escaped into the forest and KANDAN chased it for a long time. Suddenly the tiger fell on him and killed him. After waiting for a long time VILLI moved into the forest in search of his brother. Seeing his brother dead he fell unconscious. He had a divine VISION. Lord Ranganatha (Sriah Pati) with Sri Maha Lakshmi appeared in a glimpse and told VILLI that there was a treasure and his idols VATAPATRASAI in that area and his brother will come alive. VILLI had a duty to construct temple and town around the VATAPATRASAI and invite scholars from PUTTOOR. Soon VILLI gained consciousness and was amazed at the vision. His brother still dead before him he was wondering if it was just a dream. To the surprise of every one KANDAN came to life. Beyond any other doubt VILLI constructed town and it became SRI VILLIPUTTOR famous for scholars, divine souls and devotees.
IN SRIVILLIPUTTOR, one great scholar and devotee of VISHNU was MUKUNDA BHATTAR. He lived with his wife Padma Valli. On an auspicious day they were blessed with a baby boy, VISHNU CHITTA (PERIYALWAR). VISHNU CHIITTA means he who keeps Lord VISHNU always in mind, deeds and intention. Vishnu Chitta never wished to waste his time studying VEDAS and SASTRAS. He always wanted means to achieve Lord's DAYA. He knew when Lord Krishna appeared he was wearing GARLANDS made from various flowers. VISHNU CHITTA chose this maala kainkaryam. He established a beautiful garden of various flowers and Tulsi. He made garlands from various flowers and put on Lord VATA PATRASAI, the Perumal in his town. King VALLABHA DEVA was ruling the area. He happened to hear conversation between two pundits - it goes like this -" One has to work for night when it was day, one has to work on a sunny day for a rainy day, one has to work for AFTER LIFE while you are alive now". The king was impressed (you can easily see this is relevant even today's context) and wanted to establish the supreme. He invited VEDIC scholars, Pundits and Bhaktas to assemble in his court and announced a NIDHI (bag of jewels) for winner. By grace of Lord, VISHNU CHITTA was able to establish the supremacy of Lord Srimannarayana and the king honored him with Gajarohanam and VATAPATRA SAI gave darsan to the ALWAR. This Alwar looking at the Lord sang Pasurams "Pallandu Pallandu" so that the Lord is protected from all EVIL EYES (Nazar). Thus he became PERIYALWAR. Later ANDAL appeared near a TULASI plant in VISHNU CHITTA's garden. He brought her up and later married her to Lord Ranganatha. |
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