A shrine similar to Vishnu temples in South

CHENNAI: The Varadaraja Perumal on Varadamuthiappan street in Broadway, one of the many temples in this area, is important in many ways. The principal deity holds the sankha and chakra in the upper hands, while right lower hand is in abhaya hasta, granting protection to devotees and the left hand is in gada hasta as though placed on top of the mace. Goddess Lakshmi is worshiped here as Perundevi Thayar (as in the famous Varadaraja Svami temple in Kanchipuram).

A rare feature here are shrines for deities worshipped in a few famous Vishnu temples including Srinivasa Perumal (Thirumala in Andhra Pradesh), Ranganatha Svami (Srirangam in Tamil Nadu) and Sampath Kumaran (Melkote in Karnataka). Just like the principal sanctum of Srirangam, the shrine for Ranganatha Svami here too is circular in shape.

The processional image of Ranganatha Svami is worshipped here as Azhagiya Manavalan like in Srirangam and holds the prayoga chakra (chakra with the rim pointing outward). As in the Srirangam temple, goddesses Sridevi and Bhudevi are seated on either side of Azhagiya Manavalan and not standing as seen in most other temples.

The sanctum for Sampath Kumaran is interesting as, at the feet of both the main and processional deities, there are images of Bibi Nachiyar, an ardent devotee, who was the daughter of a Muslim king. Other deities in this temple include Venugopala Svami seen with consorts Rukmini and Satyabhama, Rama and Yoga Narasimha (this image being similar to the one in the famous hill-temple of Sholingur in Tamil Nadu).

The shrine for Sanjeevi Anjaneya (lifting the Sanjeevi mountain) is rare since the processional deity is also Sanjeevi Anjaneya which is unique.

Important festivals
A rare feature of this temple is that there two separate Brahmotsavams (annual festivals)

Similar to Srirangam
The sanctum for Ranganatha Svami is similar in design to the one in Srirangam

Name of Goddess
Goddess Lakshmi is worshipped as Perundevi Thayar

Narasimha image
The Yoga Narasimha here is similar to the one in the hill-temple of Sholingur

Know Your City

Broadway is a commercial centre of George Town in Chennai. The road connects China Bazaar Road in the south with Ibrahim Sahib Street (Old Jail Road) in the north Google coordinates: 13.09965°N 80.286613°E

Chithra Madhavan

cityexpresschn@gmail.com

The writer is a historian who focuses on temple architecture