Uthiramerur village is located about 85 kms from Chennai off the GST Road. This is an ancient village well known for its temples, architecture, sculptures and stone inscriptions.
This is one of the ancient temples known for its architecture. It is said seeing this temple , the Astalakshmi temple of Beasant nagar , Chennai has been built .
Uthiramerur is well connected by road with buses plying from Chennai and Kanchipuram.
This is a 3 tiered temple , with Nava Sundaravaradar dieties .
There are only a few temple of Lord Vishnu with Standing , Sitting and reclining posture within the 3 tiered gopuram.
Thirukostiyur in Sivagangai district Parameswara Vinnagaram in Kanchipuram and Kudalazhaghar temple in Madurai . Kudalazhaghar and Thirukostiyur temples they officially allow us to climb the gopuram by paying Rs. 20 per head . Whereas Parameswara Vinnagaram is in a dilapidated stage and under renovation .
The above said 3 temples are Divyadesham Perumal temples .This temple does not comes under a Divyadesham. It’s a Abhimana sthalam and Prathana sthalam.
As per legends it is said that
Sundara Varadhar was worshipped by Yudhishtira,
Vaikunda Varadhar by Bheema,
Achudha Varadhar by Arjuna,
Aniruddha Varadhar by Nakula and
Kalyana Varadhar by Sahadeva.
Also, it is believed that Goddess Ananda Valli gave darshan to Draupadi.
Hence it’s called as Pancha Varada Sthethram .
The belief of this temple is, those who pray here (with their horoscope) to Sri Kalyana Varadar on 5 consecutive Wednesdays are said to find their life mate immediately. Those who offer prayers on Tuesdays to Sri Achutha Varadar are said to find jobs immediately.
The Nava Murthy’s are
1. Sri Sundhara Varadhar
2. Sri Vaikunta Varadhar
3. Sri Achutha Varadhar
4. Sri Anirutha Varadhar
5. Sri Kalyana Varadhar
6. Sri Nara Narayana
7. Sri Yoga Narasimha
8. Sri Lakshmi Varahar
9. Sri Ananda Padmanabha
The sanctum is built in such a way that all 3 forms of Lord Vishnu are set one above the other as 3 levels or floors.
The presiding deity is Sri Sundara Varadaraja Perumal here in standing posture along with Sri Devi and Bhoodevi in the first level.
There is a staircase on which one can climb with much ease to go to the next floor one by one , in the next level Sri Vaikunda Varadar is in sitting posture.
After circumbulating all the 3 tiers there are seperate steps to climb down too .
While climbing up to the next level there is Sri Parthasarathy preaching Gita to Arjuna on the outer wall facing south. Lord Narasimha is present on the outer wall facing west and Sri Varaha Perumal with Lakshmi facing North. Here Varahar is in sitting posture with Sri Lakshmi sitting on his lap looking at Varahar’s face in a praying gesture.
In the third (upper most) level the Lord is in reclining posture on Aadhiseshan as Sri Ranganathar. Lord Brahma is seen on a Lotus emerging from Ranganathar’s navel. Lord Shiva is seen near the feet of the deity with the Deer and Mazhu (a weapon) on his hands.
Lord Ranganatha is seen blessing Markandeya Maharishi with his right hand. Bhoodevi is in a praying gesture standing opposite Markandeya.
Other than these three, there are other deities called Sri Achudha Varadhar, Sri Aniruddha Varadhar and Sri Kalyana Varadhar in the 3 sides of the pragharam.
There is also Sri Dhakshinamurthy on the tomb facing south which is unusual in Vaishnavite temples.
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