In this post, we will be seeing details about Parthasarathy temple, Triplicane.
One of the busiest place in Triplicane is Sri Parthasarathy temple. Its history goes to decades before.
Long long ago (Around 1500 to 1600 years ago), Lord Venkateswara promised King Sumathi that he would give darshan as Lord Parthasarathy. In order to keep the promise to King Sumathi, the Lord appeared as Lord Parthasarathy. Sage Athreya had installed the idol of Lord Parthasarathy Swami.
Also it is found that this temple is the oldest temple in the city.
According to Hindu Puranas, Lord Krishna was the charioteer (Sarathi) for Arjuna (Partha) during the Mahabharata war where he gave Arjuna the Gita. The utsavar, Sri Parthasarathy's face is full of scars created by the arrows of the Great Bhishma in the Kurukshetra war. Other notable point is that, God Krishna is seen with a moustache and without his weapon Chakra. The reason attributed is that he promised not to take weapons in the Mahabharatha war and hence he has only his conch. As He was the charioteer He sported the moustache keeping with the tradition. The UTSAVAR also has only a stick and not his mace as found with others. This is because the Lord was born in a cowherd clan.
The Moolavar of this sthalam is Venkata Krishnan. Along with Rukmani Piratiyar, he holds sword in one hand, Varadha Muthirai on the other hand and his brother Balaraman on his right, Sathaki on his left, son Prathyumnan, Grand son Aniruthan are also found near the Moolavar. This is one of the Sthalam where the Perumal shows his seva along with his three generations. He is found in standing (Nindra thirukkolam) position and facing his Thirumugham towards East direction.
The other notable point about the temple is that it has two shrines. One for Lord Parthasarathy and the other for Sri Yoga Narasimha Swamy (Thelliya Singhar). Here the god is seated in the Yogic Form. It is a tradition that devotees, drop crystal salt (Uppu) with black pepper as offering to the god to get their ailments cured. It is believed that the devotees ailments dissolve like how the solid salt gets dissolved.
There is a belief that Lord Parthasarathy gives courage to fight the enemies and Lord Narasimha gives strength to face the enemies.
Also Lord Gajendra Varadhar, rides in Garuda here and is in walking posture. This goes back to puranas where the God, rushed ahead to save Gajendra Elephant from the crocodile which caught hold of Gajendra.
Next is Lord Rama, who appears as Chakravarthi Thirumagan with his family to bless the devotees. He and Lord Parthasarathya (Venkata Krishnan) appears with their family to insist on family bond to the devotees.
Next in the list is Lord Aranganathar in reclining position. He is seen with both Lord Varaha and Lord Narasimha on both sides. This proves that the temple initially was of Lord Narasimha and later he has accomadated other Lords.
With the above, while visiting the Partha sarathy temple you get the effect and divine spirit of visiting Tirupathi, Srirangam, Ayodhya, Kanchi and Ahobilam in one place.
Also the Vedavalli Thayar sanithi here. As per puranas it is believed that she married Lord Aranganathar. A legend says that all the gods in the temple have approached her for marriage and she chose Lord Aranganathar.
Also there is special separate place for the the Tamil Savant, Sri Andal in the temple. The marriage of her with the God happens on the Bhogi Day every year.
Across the year, there are lots of utsavams that happens in the temple and the devotees get the blessings of the Lord round the year.
