page_title: Ranganatha
hierarchical_section_title: Ranganatha
caption_attribution_description: English: Madyaranga Ranganatha temple: self photographed image
context_page_description: Ranganāthar, also known as Sri Ranganatha, Aranganathar, Ranga and Thenarangathan, is a Hindu deity, more well known in South India, and the chief deity of the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam. The deity is a resting form of Lord Vishnu, recumbent on the great form of the serpent god Adisesha, one of the foremost of Hindu gods. His consort is Goddess Lakshmi, also known as Ranganayaki. His two other consorts seen next to his recumbent figure are Bhudevi and Nila Devi. Most of the deities portray a 'smiling' lord in a sleeping or reclining position over the celestial serpent Adisesha in the sea of cosmic dissolution. This is the form in which he is open to listening to all of his devotees' woes, and blesses them. Apart from being worshipped by all Hindus, this form is of particular importance to the Sri Vaishnava community. His name in Sanskrit means "leader of the place of assembly", coined from two Sanskrit words ranga and natha.
  Symbolic representation of Ranganatha and Nataraja has been compared as the meaning of both is the same except for their locations.
context_section_description: Ranganāthar, also known as Sri Ranganatha, Aranganathar, Ranga and Thenarangathan, is a Hindu deity, more well known in South India, and the chief deity of the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam. The deity is a resting form of Lord Vishnu, recumbent on the great form of the serpent god Adisesha, one of the foremost of Hindu gods. His consort is Goddess Lakshmi, also known as Ranganayaki. His two other consorts seen next to his recumbent figure are Bhudevi and Nila Devi. Most of the deities portray a 'smiling' lord in a sleeping or reclining position over the celestial serpent Adisesha in the sea of cosmic dissolution (pralaya). This is the form in which he is open to listening to all of his devotees' woes, and blesses them. Apart from being worshipped by all Hindus, this form is of particular importance to the Sri Vaishnava community. His name in Sanskrit means "leader of the place of assembly", coined from two Sanskrit words ranga (place) and natha (Lord or leader).
  Symbolic representation of Ranganatha and Nataraja has been compared as the meaning of both is the same except for their locations. In Ranganatha, ranga means "stage" and which in the broadest sense refers to "the world, the cosmos or better still of the body and the senses". Nataraja also means the "Lord of the Stage" and in this case his stage is in ‘Chidambaram’ meaning the "sphere of wisdom", while Ranganatha rests on the Ocean of milk or Paarkadal, which is a metaphysical or esoteric concept which is not easy to interpret as it is perceived in different ways by different people. The name "Nataraja" is more usually taken to mean Lord of the Dance in reference to the dance of dissolution, or pralaya, or alternatively the dance of illusion by which the material sphere is manifested, and is therefore a name for Lord Shiva, as distinct from Lord Vishnu.
caption: Jaganmohana Ranganatha at Shivanasamudra
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "COOLPIX L22 V1.0", "Image DateTime": "2010:03:18 06:19:27", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "188", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "58002", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4496", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "22/5", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "33/10", "EXIF FocalLength": "3177/250", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4000", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3000", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "57878", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain up", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "-226"}