01Vegavati and the serpent bed
Brahma performed an ashvamedha at Kanchi without Saraswati, and she came down as the river Vegavati to wash the yajna away. Bhagwan Vishnu lay down across her course on Adishesha and the flood stopped. Vegavani, then Vehka, became Vekka.
Centuries later Kanikannan, disciple of Thirumalisai Alvar, would not sing the Pallava king’s praise and was banished. The Alvar went with him and told the Lord: Kanikannan goes, so I go; you too roll up your snake bed. The Lord went, and the town fell dark until the king called them back. The image lies the other way from most reclining Vishnus, as if newly settled.
02Fifteen pasurams
Five Alvars sang Thiruvekka: Poigai Alvar, Pey Alvar, Thirumalisai Alvar, Thirumangai Alvar and Nammalvar, fifteen pasurams in all. The Sangam poem Perumpanarruppadai speaks of the Lord reclining on the serpent at Vehka, which makes this one of the oldest named Vishnu shrines of Tamil land. The temple keeps about a dozen inscriptions from Parantaka I to the Vijayanagara period. Poigai Alvar’s birth is kept in Aippasi under the Thiruvonam star, and the Brahmotsavam falls in Panguni.
The life of this place
- Alvar periodPoigai, Pey, Thirumalisai, Thirumangai Alvars and Nammalvar sing Thiruvekka.
- Parantaka Chola IThe earliest dated Chola records of the temple are cut in Parantaka I’s reign.
In south Kanchipuram (Vishnu Kanchi), close to the Ashtabhujakaram temple. Go in Aippasi for Poigai Alvar’s day.
