page_title: Tiru Parameswara Vinnagaram
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: Tiru Parameswara Vinnagaram / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: English: Vaikunta Perumal temple
context_page_description: Thiru Parameswara Vinnagaram or Vaikunta Perumal Temple is a temple dedicated to Vishnu, located in Kanchipuram in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Constructed in the Dravidian style of architecture, the temple is glorified in the Divya Prabandha, the early medieval Tamil canon of the Azhwar saints from the 6th–9th centuries AD. It is one among the 108 Divyadesam dedicated to Vishnu, who is worshipped as Vaikuntanathan and his consort Lakshmi as Sri Vaikundavalli. The temple is considered the second oldest extant temples in Kanchipuram after the Kailasanthar temple.
  The temple is believed to have been built by the Pallava king Narasimhavarman II, with later contributions from Medieval Cholas and Vijayanagar kings. The temple is surrounded by a granite wall enclosing all the shrines and water bodies of the temple. Vaikuntanathan is believed to have appeared to king Viroacha. The temple follows Vaikasana Agama and observes six daily rituals and two yearly festivals. The temple follows Thenkalai mode of worship and is maintained and administered by the Hindu Religious and Endowment Board of the Government of Tamil Nadu.
context_section_description: Paramesvara Vinnagaram is an earliest specimen of Dravidian architecture. The temple has a rectangular plan and approached through a flat granite gateway tower. The vimana has a stepped pyramidal roof and it resembles a Vihara. Three sanctuaries host the image of Vishnu in different postures - seated (ground floor), lying (first floor; accessible to devotees only on ekadashi days) and standing (second floor; inaccessible to devotees). The logical and complex plan of the temple provided a prototype for the much larger shrines to be constructed all over Tamil Nadu. The external cloisters, with their lion pillars, are predecessors of the grand thousand pillared halls of later temples. In modern times, the four lions have been replaced with Garuda (image of eagle mount of Vishnu).
  The cloister walls have a sequence of relief sculptures depicting the history of the Pallava dynasty. The first set of panels show the supposedly divine lineage of the Pallavas starting from Brahma, followed by Angiras (sage), Bṛhaspati, Bharadwaja, Drona and Ashwatthama.  These panels are followed by panels depicting the actual Pallava kings themselves. A typical panel shows the king on the left frame of the panel. In some cases, the coronation of the king is shown as can be seen by priests pouring sacred water on his head. The right side of the panel shows battle scenes or other events during that monarch's reign. The panels of Mahendravarman I and Narasimhavarman I show the battles with Pulakesin II of the Badami Chalukyas. Finally, there are panels that show the search and the finding of a successor after Paramesvaravarman II's early death. The successor is none other than Nandivarman II, who built this temple.
  The niches on the walls around the sanctum are similar to the ones in Mahabalipuram. Some of the sculptures indicates various legends of Mahabaratha depicting the image of Dharmaraja, Arjuna and Bhima. The temple is built of granite with a mixture of sandstone. The three storied temple is the forerunner for various later built temples like Vaikunta Perumal temple at Uthiramerur, Koodal Azhagar temple at Madurai and Rajagopalaswamy temple at Mannargudi. The three stories are achieved with three concentric squares with a small passage in between with the top layer being closed by a filial.
caption: Sculptures on the panel, 1956
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