CHENNAI: Arumbakkam, on the south bank of River Cooum, is a place once thought to be far from the hub of erstwhile Madras, but is now one of the more crowded places in Chennai. According to traditional accounts, this place was once called Satyapuri. In Tamil, it was called Arampakkam as aram in Tamil is satya (truth) and pakkam is puri (place), which in course of time became Arumbakkam.
There is an old temple for Vishnu worshipped as Satya Varadaraja Perumal. The prefix Satya is because of the traditional association of this place with Satyapuri. The main deity Satya Varadaraja Perumal, is in a seated posture in ardha-padmasana (right leg bent at the knee and placed on the pedestal and left leg placed in front) with the upper right hand holding the Chakra and upper left hand holding the Sankha. The lower right hand is in tadana hasta and the lower left hand is placed on top of the mace (gada).
It is to be noted that the Chakra here is of the prayoga type, with its pointed end facing outward and not the flat face as is usually seen in most Vishnu images. The prayoga Chakra is usually associated with Vishnu images of the Pallava dynasty and also of their contemporaries, the Chalukyas of Vatapi (present-day Badami in Karnataka). Tadana hasta can be identified by the flat face of the hand shown to the onlooker, but slightly tilted as though slapping someone. This is to punish the evil and the wicked.
The other deities in the temple are Lakshmi worshipped as Perundevi Thayar, Andal, Sudarsana (the personification of the discus of Vishnu) with the image of Yoga Narasimha on the rear side, Bhakta Hanuman and the Azhvars (12 important devotees of Vishnu).