How to reach:
The place is about 70 kms from chennai via redhills and Kolkata highway. After the Karanodai bridge checkpost on the highway look for the left turning to Periapalayam ,Uthukottai and Puthur travel along the road and you will cross Periapalayam. Take a left turn at Periapalayam and cross the bridge next to the amman temple and proceed straight till you cross surutapalli and within 5 kms you will see the Temple arch. Alternatively on the Tiruvellore tirupati road at puttur byepass take a right turn and you will cross Narayanavanam on the left (ref previous blog regarding Kalyana venkatesa perumal). After about 20 kms you will see Nagalapuram on the left.
The temple is about 70 kms from chennai via redhills and Kolkatta highway.It is maintained by TTD . You can see two Gopurams on the west with the lord visible from outside facing west
History of the temple :
The temple was built by King Krishnadevaraya. He visited this place before marching north to conquer Gajapati Kings in present Orissa and on his return camped here after worshipping in Tirupati before going to kumbakonam for the Mahamakam as per records unearthed in the temple. The Place was renamed as Nagalamma puram in memory of his mother and later became nagalapuram.
Legend:
There was a demon called Somukhasura who confiscated the four Vedas and held them captive under the sea. Brahma prayed to Narayana who took the form of a fish and killed the asura and released the Vedas. hence he is known as Vedanarayana swamy.
(view of the outer Gopuram on the west)
(view of the second gopuram on the west)
Beyond the second gopuram we see the The sanctum sanctorum of the lord which is seen from the road also!
The sanctorum houses an image of the Matsya form of Vishnu, with Sridevi and Bhudevi on either side. A peculiar feature of the idol is that it holds the Sudarsana Chakra in prayoga (ready for release). The lords feet are seen emerging from a fish form. This is Matsya avataram the first avataram of maha Vishnu.
The outer praharam of Vedanarayana perumal has a lot of exquisite carvings of various gods both alone and also as dwarapalakas in the outer prahara along with figures of Lakshmi hayagreeva, lakshmi narasimha and Lakshmi Varahamurthy also!
( hiranya kashyapu vadanam on one of the pillars)
The Sri Vedavalli thayar sannidhi is seperate and in south west in front of the main sannidhi. Thayar is in the sitting posture and the hallway pillars all show exquisite carvings of various forms of Anjeneya, Narasimha etc.,.
There are two seperate mandapams in the temple In the North west corner and north side of the temple.
The northwest corner houses the sanctums of
The Sun has a special relation ship with this lord. Every year in March end the lord is bathed for 3 days with direct sunlight .On the first day, sun rays fall on the feet, on the second - on the chest and on the third - on the forehead. This signifies the gradual warming of the lord after many years spent under the sea battling the asura!! In reality it is a marvelous piece of engineering as there is no vent or light source in the roof the sun rays come through the main door only as it is a west facing temple !!
Surya Pooja happens annually during the temple’s Brahmotsavam the sun's rays fall on the main deity between 1800 hrs and 1815 hrs. , depicting worship by Sri Surya Bhagavan (the Sun God) himself.
See Video report by a TV network :Solar worship of the lord
Rare Bronze idols were found recently here and were appreciated by
Sri Sankara Vijeyendra saraswathy swamigal of Kanchi mutt
See link:Kanchi pontiff Sri vijeyendra saraswathy clarifies on the rare bronze statues found at Nagalapuram
.There was a tremendous boost to the mind found at this temple!!
(Off side:There were also a few light moments in the form of sign boards in english):
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