Yoga Narasimhar Temple, Velachery – Legends
Vedasreni:
During
Tretha Yuga, the Four Vedas were snatched away from Lord Brahmma by the
demon Somasura. Lord Vishnu recovered them from the demon. As the Vedas
remained with the demon for some time, their sanctity was lost as they had
acquired an asura Dosha. They prayed to Lord Shiva at this place to become pure
and holy again. Lord Shiva purified the Vedas here and restored them to their
original glory. The place where the four Vedas prayed was known as Vedasreni,
which got changed in the later yugas and now called as Velachery.
Veda Narayanar:
The
presence of Veda Narayanar here is also connected to the story of retrieval of
the lost Vedas mentioned in the Dandeeswarar Temple.
Velvichery:
As per
another version, a lot of yagnas were conducted in this village. Yagna is
called as Velvi in Tamil language. The place was called as Velvichery, which
later became Velachery.
Lord Narasimha darshan to Prahaladha:
Lord
Narasimha is believed to have given Darshan to Prahaladha here.
References in Periya Thirumozhi:
The
temple is a very ancient temple and finds itself in the Periya Thirumozhi song
sung in the 7th century praising the Lord Narasimhar of this temple.
Dhandeeswaram:
According
to the Sthala Puranam, the temple was constructed by King Dandi Varma and he
donated huge portions of land as alms to the Brahmins. Hence the place is
called as Dhandeeswaram.
Shaivite and Vaishnavite Groups:
The
Velachery Main Road of today was the earlier years ago division of the Shaivite
and Vaishnavite communities who resided in the area. Today too the agraharam
which is located in the area around Sri Dandeeswarar Kovil houses the Iyer
community and the agraharam around Sri Yoga Narasimha Swamy Kovil houses the
Iyengar and Telugu Brahmin community who are Vaishnavites by origin.
