Friday, May 5, 2017

Mannar Rajagopalaswamy Temple, Palayamkottai – Legends

Mannar Rajagopalaswamy Temple, Palayamkottai – Legends
Lord transformed a female child to male child:
A priest by name Vishnu Priyan was performing archanas to the lord regularly. He wished to get a male child. But his wife delivered a female child successively and this irritated him. Hence the priest begged the lord to give him a male child. On the next delivery also his wife gave birth to a female child which angered the priest. Hence he threw the archana plate on the lord which caused damage to the lord’s idol. Then he moved towards his home and he found a male child.
The lord transformed his female child as a male child. On seeing the lord’s grace he was frightened and moved towards the temple to seek pardon from the lord. He reached the temple and asked pardon. Lord Gopalaswami along with Bhama and Rukmini (his consorts) appeared before him. Hence the lord is known as Azhagiya Mannar Rajagopalaswamy.
Indra gave Gopalaswami idol to Arjuna:
Once Demons troubled Indira who ruled over a kingdom of devas and devas. During that time Arjuna reached the kingdom of Indira to see him. Indira asked Arjuna to destroy the demons and further informed that the demons were found at Thoyamapuram (Ocean’s middle portion). Arjuna had also accepted it and moved to the demons and challenged them. Arjuna was surprised to see the demons fell dead in the war came alive.
At that time Arjuna heard a voice which stated that Arjuna would get victory if he derided the demons at him. Hence Arjuna faked as if he retreats from the war which put the demons derided at him. Arjuna waited for that time and he launched Pasupatha weapon against the demons which erased all the demons. Indra was pleased with it and he gave Gopalaswami idol to Arjuna for his worship.
Arjuna had also offered prayers to the lord daily. One day Arjuna got a dream in which lord asked Arjuna to put the idol in Ganges and Arjuna had also obeyed it. After several years Sripathy, Pandya king, fought against his enemies on the shore of Ganges and he found the idol. He took the idol and constructed a temple for the lord and he installed that idol in the temple. Then the lord is worshipped as Azhagiya Rajagopalan.
Vedanarayana:
Brahmma is believed to have undertaken penance invoking Lord Vishnu to help recover the Vedic Scriptures that had been taken away by the Asuras. Hence Lord Vishnu got the name Veda Narayanan.