01Kaveri’s tapas
Before the pralaya Brahma asked Vishnu how to keep the Vedas and the means of creation safe. Put them in a pot of strong earth, the Lord said, and the only earth that held was the soil of Thirucherai; so it is Sara Kshetram, the essence-place. Later the rivers asked Brahma which of them was greatest, and he named Ganga, washed by the foot of Trivikrama. Kaveri sat in tapas here to be her equal. Vishnu came to her as a child, she nursed him with a mother’s care, and he showed her all ten avatars. He granted that in the month of Tula she would be holier than Ganga. Kaveri is enshrined here as a mother with the child on her lap.
02A minister’s stones
A Nayaka-period katha explains the temple’s size. The Thanjavur king sent stone through Thirucherai for the Rajagopalaswamy temple at Mannargudi, and his minister Narasa Bhupalan, a devotee of Saranathan, had one stone taken off every cart. Discovered, he raised the temple overnight and added a Rajagopala shrine to it, and the king relented on seeing it. Two inscriptions record grants, one of a Chola Parakesarivarman and one of Babasahib of Madavipallam (1728–38). Thirumangai Alvar sings of Thirucherai in thirteen pasurams. The Chola bronze of Sita is admired as fine work of the ninth or tenth century.
The life of this place
- Alvar periodThirumangai Alvar sings of Thirucherai.
- Chola periodAn inscription of Parakesarivarman records a grant to the temple.
- 1728–38An inscription of Babasahib of Madavipallam records further grants.
About 15 km south-east of Kumbakonam on the Kudavasal road; Nachiyar Koil is on the way. Bathe in the Sara Pushkarani if you come in the month of Tula (Aippasi).
