01The jewelled peak
Manikkoodam means the jewelled peak, and Thirumangai Alvar calls the Perumal Manikkooda Nayakan, the Lord of that peak. He is Varadarajan, the giver of boons, the same name as the Lord of Kanchipuram. The temple katha says the eleven Rudras who rose from Shiva’s dance, and Indra, king of the devas, worshipped him here. Varadarajan stands facing east with Sridevi, here called Thirumamagal Nachiyar, and Bhudevi in the same shrine. The vahanas on which the deities ride out are kept as images in the hall before the sanctum.
02The temple
Thirumangai Alvar sings of Manikkoodam in a decad of ten pasurams. The temple has a single prakaram and one shrine, close to the village of Thirunangur on the way to Thiruvenkadu. In the eighteenth century Divya Kavi Pillai Perumal Aiyangar named it in his 108 Tirupati Antati. Its Perumal joins the Ekadasa Garuda Sevai at Thai Amavasai, and the Nangur folk belief that a good wind over the paddy before the festival promises a good harvest is told here as at the other ten shrines.
The life of this place
- Alvar periodThirumangai Alvar sings a decad on Manikkoodam.
In Thirunangur, about 8 km east of Sirkazhi; visit with the other Nangur temples.
