Temple on white hillock

Thiruvellarai is a divya desam close to Tiruchi. The title comes from the white hillock on which the temple has been constructed. The temple has a connection to king Shibi of the Ikshvaku dynasty, to which Rama belonged, mentioned Okay.B .Devarajan in a discourse. Shibi all the time abided by the rules of dharma. One day a dove, which was being hunted down by a hawk, flew to Shibi for defense. Shibi clearly couldn’t let down a hen that had come to him for assist. But on the similar time, the hawk was not doing something incorrect, for it was solely searching the dove for meals. If Shibi refused at hand over the dove, the hawk must go with out meals. So Shibi supplied his flesh to the hunter as an alternative. The hunter may take from Shibi as a lot flesh as equalled the burden of the hen. But the size didn’t tilt in favour of his flesh, irrespective of how a lot flesh was taken from him. So, he supplied up his total physique to the hawk. It turned out, nonetheless, that the dove was Agni, and the hawk was Indra. The devas had been solely testing Shibi to see if he would preserve to dharma below all circumstances.

One day Shibi went searching, and chased a white boar, which ran behind a bush and disappeared. Sage Markandeya who was doing penance close by requested Shibi to do an abhishekam to the bush. When he did so, an idol of Vishnu in standing posture emerged. That is the murthy that we see within the Thiruvellarai temple, and the Lord is named Pundreekaksha (the lotus-eyed One) right here. Lotus eyes are the distinguishing characteristic of the Supreme One, says the Chandogya Upanishad. The Lord has solely kalyana gunas, that’s auspicious qualities. He is the One adored by Lakshmi. His qualities by no means change, it doesn’t matter what avatara He takes, and the identical qualities are to be seen within the archa type too.