Vishalakshi Sametha Vishwanatha Swamy temple, Palliagraharam, Thanjavur

Thanjavur, as we know it, is blessed with historical abundance as well as ancient temples.

I got to know that there are 3 types of temple built. They are:

1)Vishnu Temple behind the Vishwanatha temple

2)Vishnu Temple behind the Vishwanatha temple

 

• Temples that are built after God’s or Devatha’s worship; e.g.: Thanjapureeshwarar Temple
• Temples that are built after Rishi’s worshipping God; e.g.: Konkaneshwar Temples, west main street
• Temples that are exclusively built after humans’ personal worshipping gods; e.g.: Brihadheeshwara Temple, Bangaru Kamakshi temple, Shankaranaryanan temple and the temple I’m talking about in this post.

 

4)Theppam of this temple

3)Ruined temple in the opposite road of Vishwanatha temple

The name of the temple is Vishalakshi Sametha Vishwanatha Swamy Temple, located in the northern bank of Vennar River in Palliagraharam. This temple is built for/by humans to worship Bhagavan exclusively for themselves.

5)Maratha time building seems to be a Dhobhi Ghat

This temple is very special for me. Every time I crossed this temple, which is located in the main road of Thanjavur – Kumbakonam road, near the bank of Vennaru (Tributary of Cauvery River), there was some curiosity, which urged me to find out the history of the Temple.

6)Another old Shiva Temple

7)Old Shiva temple in the dead end of the road

Fortunately for this Maha Shivarathri, I was really blessed to witness the First Kaala Pooja of this temple and also to know the history of this temple. Especially Hari Iyer uncle and Bappa Ji, helped me to extract information about this temple.

8)124 Years old water treatment building

(When this word Palliagraharam is being read or heard, everyone in Thanjavur gets striked by 2 important temples, i.e. Thanjapureeshwarar Temple and Thanjai Maamani Kovil. The Shaivite and Vaishnavite temples have a huge significance in the history.

• Thanjapureeshwarar temple, is the reason why Thanjavur got its name
• Thanjai Maamani Kovil is the 3^rd Divya Desam among the 108 Divya Desams. There are 3 temples located back to back, which sums up to 1 divya desams, those temples are:  

1. Narasimha Perumal Temple 
2. Neelamegha Perumal Temple  
3. Manikundra Perumal Temple

History of the temple

Vishalakshi Sametha Vishwanathar Temple

This temple was built during the rule of Maharaja Serfoji. Venkata Rao who was then the prime minister in Serfoji Raja’s period, built/developed this temple. Before that there was only one Shiva Linga, which was worshipped by everyone. Then Venkata Rao built the temple, and established Vinayakar, Valli Devasena sametha Subramanyar, Gaja Lakshmi, Bala DhandayudhaPani, Bhairavar, Shani Bhagavan and Surya Bhagavan in the temple. Also there is one idol dedicated for Venkata Rao who built this temple.

 

Another Maratha Period temple in northern bank of Vennar

Since then it was converted into a private temple. The family of Shri Venkata Rao, employed a Sthanigam for the temple. After the Sthaniga Archagar passed away, he had no children and the Sthanigam method just dropped. 

Muthuswamy Dheekshithar has composed a Kirti on this temple. Kumbabhishekam of this temple was conducted during 1964 and 1988. We could track the origin of this temple with the help of Mr. Pradeep’s family lineage. 

 

Big Nandhi in the northern bank Vennar Shiva Temple

Now Mr. Pradeep who belongs to the lineage is taking care of the temple out of his own savings. His father and grandfather were part of the committee and had been an important member of the Bangalore Nagaratnammal Trust of Thiruvaiyaru Thyagaraja adhishtanam.

Apart from this temple, Palliagraharam is a place where I witnessed many old buildings.

There is one Lord Vishnu temple just located at the back of this Shiva temple. Few meters away in the opposite of the temple, located is a ruined temple with a theppa mandapam, two ancient Shivan temples and water treatment building built during the British rule in 1895 and in the Northern bank of Vennar, located is a big ancient Shivan temple and opposite to this temple, located is an old big building of Maratha period. (In images 1 -  

After seeing all these historic buildings, I am very much excited to learn about the Palliagraharam’s history exclusively.

With the same excitement of Shivaratri, add on happiness and blessing for me is to present my readers with the history of this Vishalakshi Sametha Vishwanathar temple!!!

Yours East Gaterr