01The Lord who appeared of himself
Totadri, the Sanskrit name of Vanamamalai, is one of the eight places where Vishnu is held to have manifested of himself; the temple tells that he appeared to Adisesha and Garuda. He sits in the sanctum with Sridevi and Bhudevi, and the Vimana above is called Nandavardhana. Nammalvar gave the temple ten verses in the Tiruvaymoli (5.7), and so it is counted among the 108 Divya Desams.
02The oil well
Few Vishnu temples bathe the main image daily. At Vanamamalai the Lord is anointed every morning, and the oil of the abhishekam is poured into a well inside the temple that has been filling for centuries. Devotees take a little of it home as prasad and as medicine for skin and joint ailments. The temple has been in the care of the Vanamamalai Mutt since 1447, when its first jeeyar, a disciple of Manavala Mamunigal, took charge; the jeeyars are still its hereditary trustees, and the Mutt has Totadri branches across India.
The life of this place
- 1236The earliest inscription, of Sundara Pandya I, records a gift for the Adi Puram festival.
- 1284An inscription of Sundara Pandya II on the east gopuram records a gift of land.
- 1447The temple passes into the care of the Vanamamalai Mutt.
Nanguneri is on the Tirunelveli–Kanyakumari highway, about 30 km south of Tirunelveli. Come for the morning oil abhishekam; the Chittirai chariot festival and the Thai Brahmotsavam are the great days.
