Famous Temples in India

Religious Significance

Legend - The past time of this temple is intimately associated with Salihotra Muni. Salihotra Muni was a great devotee of the Supreme Personality of God head and lived in Thiruvathari Ashrama (Badrinath). There is an interesting past time story to be narrated about how he got his name."Sali" means an instrument which is used to measure the weight (or) quantity (volume) of rice."Hotra" means sacrifice. Begetting and raising a devotee as son/daughter is considered the highest form of blessing among followers of the Vedic system. Salihotra Muni’s parents performed an elaborate fire sacrifice to beget a devotee son. They started an elaborate fire sacrifice which would take a whole year, using 28,000 sali measurements of rice. As the result of that elaborate fire sacrifice, a child was born and was named Salihotra.

Salihotra Muni became instrumental for the appearance of the Lord in the Veeraraghava Perumal temple. The legend associated with this temple says, that during a new moon day in the month of Thai, Salihotra Muni reached Thiruvallur, where he met a congregation of sages in the forest. They were engaged in taking bath in the sacred pond called "Hrith-Thapa-Nasini" Pushkarani and he was also advised to take bath before performing his daily rituals. The bath changed the mind of Salihotra Muni and he decided to stay at the bank of that holy pond to perform penance without food or water for one year. The next year, on the same Pushya Amavasya day, he completed his penance and took a holy dip in the Hrith-Thapa-Nasini Pushkarani and observed his morning prayers. As he was fasting for one year without food and drink, on that day he collected some paddy and prepared a food offering for the lord, using rice flour.

At this juncture, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Narayana took the form of an old brahmana and came to where Salihotra Muni was waiting to offer a share of the prasadam to a guest. He immediately offered the food to the brahmana, who immediately honoured the offering by eating it. Salihotra Muni understood that the old brahmana was very hungry and immediately offered his share of prasadam as well to the brahmana. The brahmana was satisfied and left the place. Another one year of penance continued without any food and drink. Again on the day of Pushya Amavasya,Salihotra Muni took his bath in the holy pond and after his prayers, prepared food as he had done the previous year. He offered the bhoga to Sri Narayana and was waiting for a guest. This time also the Lord Narayana took the form of an old Brahmana and was welcomed by Salihotra Muni to his hermitage.

After honouring prasadam, the old brahmana expressed to Salihotra Muni, in Tamil, “Uraivatharku ivvul evvul?” (In this place, which is the spot to sleep?) To this, the sage replied, “ivvul”, meaning “here”. The old man was pleased at this offer and stretched his body in the hermitage, putting his head towards South. Immediately the old Brahmana transformed himself into the form of Anathashayana and Adishesha appeared with his thousand hoods to serve as couch and canopy. On the request of Salihotra Muni, the lord promised that he would permanently stay there and to bless and relieve all those who pray to him after taking bath in the holy pond, of their material miseries. Hence he is called Sri Vaidhya Veeraraghava Perumal. The place was also called "Thiru Evvul", which in course of time changed to Thiruvallur. In the puranas this city is referred as "Veksharanya Kshetra". Markandeya Purana provides many details regarding this temple. The original names of this place was "Punyavrata Kshetra" and "Veeksharanya Kshetra".