01The envoy in Hastinapura
The Mahabharata tells how Krishna went to Hastinapura to ask for five villages for the Pandavas. Duryodhana had a pit dug under the seat set for him and hid wrestlers in it. Krishna grew to the vishvarupa, the form that fills the worlds, and the court saw it. Pada-agam, the great dwelling, is read as the name of that vast form. Janamejaya, great-grandson of Arjuna, is said to have done tapas here to see it again. The image in the sanctum is seated, two-armed as a man would be, and so large that the hall seems small around it.
02Alvars and inscriptions
Four Alvars sang Thiruppadagam: Bhoothath Alvar, Pey Alvar, Thirumalisai Alvar and Thirumangai Alvar, six pasurams in all. The walls carry Chola records. One of Kulottunga I’s fifth year tells of a merchant who gave a flower garden and bought land for the gardeners; another of his thirty-ninth year pays a priest to supply curd daily; a record of Rajadhiraja II gives thirty-two cows for the temple lamps. The vimana over the sanctum is the Bhadra vimana, and the Thayar shrine stands to the south.
The life of this place
- Alvar periodBhoothath, Pey, Thirumalisai and Thirumangai Alvars sing Thiruppadagam.
- c. 1075 CEA record of Kulottunga Chola I’s fifth year notes a merchant’s gift of a flower garden.
- Rajadhiraja Chola IIThirty-two cows are given for the lamps of the temple.
In Periya Kanchipuram, a short walk west of the Kamakshi Amman temple. Krishna Jayanti in Avani is the great day here.
