CHENNAI: Aapoor, a village off Grand Southern Trunk Road (GST) leading from Chennai, located west of Singaperumal Kovil on the road leading to the Bengaluru Highway, is home to a Vishnu temple dedicated to Nitya Kalyana Prasanna Venkatesa Perumal.
In Aapoor is a small hill called Oushadagiri which is believed to have medicinal herbs growing on it. It has five hundred steps leading to the apex from the west side and can be seen from a long distance away. Visitors climbing the steps to reach the top, see a mandapam which is actually located on the rear side of the temple. The entrance to the temple is on the east and can be reached by circumambulating the shrine.
The Nitya Kalyana Prasanna Venkatesa Perumal temple consists of a small sanctum and two mandapas in front. While the inner mandapa has granite pillars, the outer one is of concrete.
Nitya Kalyana Prasanna Venkatesa Perumal is seen in a standing posture holding the Sankha and Chakra in the upper arms. The right lower hand is in abhaya hasta (attitude of protection) and left lower hand is in kati hasta (resting on the waist). A rare feature of this temple is that the deity is always draped in a sari. There is no separate sanctum for Goddess Lakshmi which is usually an important part of any Vishnu temple in Tamil Nadu.
The processional image (utsava-murti) is not in the hill-top temple, but is worshipped in the village at the base of the hill.
Unique offerings
Devotees offer nine yards and six yards saris
Hill-top temple
500 steps to the hill’s apex
Code of worship
The rituals of this temple are governed by the Vaikhanasa Agama.
Chithra Madhavan
cityexpresschn@gmail.com
The writer is a historian who focuses on temple architecture