About Pallakkal:
Pallakkal is a village situated under Ambasamudram Taluk in Tirunelveli District, Tamilnadu, temple is situated about 40 kms from Tirunelveli Railway Station.
About Lord Sri Venkadathappan:
Lord Venkadathappan or Srinivasa is the presiding deity in Pallakkal. Temple was constructed more than 2000 years ago but it was under the control of Trivandrum King Udaya Marthanda Varma
Brief History of the temple:
As per the book “Travancore State Manual” released in the year 1925 the Travancore King Udaya Marthanda Varma stayed in Ambasamudram in the year 1525 and was mainly involved in renovating temples present around Tirunelveli
In Travancore Archacologial Series Volume 6 Part2 Page 125 written by Sri Ramanatha Ayyar in the year 1929, printed by Govt Press Trivandrum. In the year 1541 an institution was formed in the Pallakkal temple and the temple was called in the name of the king – Udaya Marthanda Varma’s Perumal. See below picture, taken from the book for your reference,
Battle of Tamirabarani:
In the year 1545, the battle of Tamirabarani erupted when king of Travancore Udaya Marthanda Varma refused to respect to King Achyutadeva Raya of great Vijayanagara Empire. The angry king of Vijayanagara decided to attack the Travancore Kingdom especially the Tamirabarani belt. Though Vijayanagara empire had 1000’s of Elephants it was recorded in history that they only used less than 50% of their total solders and captured in and around Tirunelveli, especially Pallakkal which is in Ambasamudram. And thus this temple was later used as a fort by the great king of Vijayanagara especially to protect from Mughal emporars.
Acharya Madhva Tradition with the temple:
It has to be noted that many saints especially Madhva saints would have visited the temple and would have had the dharshan of Lord here. Sri Purandara Dasar would have visited this temple as dasaru was the guru of Vijayanagara King Achyutadeva Raya. Sri Purandara Dasar has composed about 85000 songs on Temple Yatras alone(Tirtha yathras) out of his 4,25,000 compositions. Unfortunately we have preserved only thousands of them. (Please note the author has been doing research on the same about the mentioning of this temple and will soon come back if any update).
We can see Sanjeeva Hanumantha inscribed on the pillars in the entrance, shows the sign of Vijayanagara rule. Temple resembles similar structure of Thirukkurungudi Keelnambi Perumal. It could be because same rulers were taking care of these temples in the past.
It must have been in the year 1900 or so that this temple had seen severe flood in the river Gadana and most of the Kannada speaking Hindu families migrated themselves to other parts of Tamilnadu. There was a big Agraharam near Srinivasa temple and Narasimha swamy temple and even the traces could not be seen now. Thus strongly supporting our point that Vaishnava Kannada speaking families lived for many years. Even when we enquired the local villagers they say that Kannada brahmins stayed here for many years in agraharam
It was said this temple had a big chariot (Ratham) which is now missing for a decade. It is also said this temple had many other idols of Lord which could be also missing due to non-maintenance of years.
Pallakal Temple in 4 minutes:
Please play the below video which will take you through the temple in 4 minutes,
About the Holy River Gadana:
River Gadana or Kadana originates from Athri falls and flows for about 40kms and finally merges with Tamirabarani in the village called Mukkudal. Pallakkal temple is located on the banks of the river Gadana.
One of the saptharishis “Athri maha rishi” prayed Ganga devi and as a boon Ganga devi decided to stay in Athri Mountain and started to flow in the name of Gadana river. Such is the greatness of this river which is actually not known to many of them. I personally took a dip and tasted the water which is more than tastier than Honey, such is the sweetness with divine smell.
As per Taratamya concept of Jagadguru Shri Madhvacharya all saptha rishis ( Vishvamitra, Marichi, Atri, Angirasa, Pulastya, Pulaha, Vasishta) will come under 14th position after Bhrugu Rishi, while Lord Shriman Narayana stands the first position and then comes Shri Lakshmi devi.
Kaval Deivam(Guardian deity) at Pallakkal:
We can see Kaval Deivam(Tamil) / Guardian Deity shrine just side of Pallakkal Srinivasa temple. The history could be the same as many other Vishnu Temples especially in Thirunelveli or Madurai in Tamilnadu. If you consider the history of Alagarkoil it is followed till date that before commencing any function to Lord special pooja will be done to Karuppasamy(Guardian Deity). It is like asking permission from guardian deity so that he will take care of completing it without any vigna.
Alagarkoil is situated about 20 Kms from Madurai. Saint Sri Vadirajar says that Lord at this place is called as “Sri Sundararajar”. Rajaru explains the mahime of this auspicious place. His holiness says that Sri Yamadharma did thapas at this place meditating on Lord Sri Harih {in Vrushaba roopa} and as a result of Dharma’s bhakthi Lord appeared before him and did anugraha/blessings to him.
Official Youtube Channel for Pallakkal Perumal:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2dXifI6B1jCmwXHpHwajpg/featured
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Archaeological Evidences about the Temple History
Temple View:
Abhishekam to Lord:
Restoration Activities
How to reach the Temple:
Airport: Trivandrum – 140 kms, Madurai -190kms
Train: Tirunelveli Junction
Hire a taxi service at Tirunelveli on package and visit the temple.
Contact Mr. Iyyappan for decent taxi trip: 9486898589/6374988817
Contact person of temple:
Contact Archakar Shri Balaji: 9488473477.
You can drop an email to me at mailmevenky@gmail.com if any queries
Google Map Location:
Nearby Places to visit:
- Gadana River which is just 200 mts from Temple.
- Sri Narasihma Swamy Temple which is just 500 mts from Temple.
- Wait for another post which will give you detailed information about Temples which I visited recently in and around Tirunelveli
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All glories to guru Shri Vyasaraja,
Venkatesh Rajendran
About The Author
