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Sri Kodandarama Swamy Temple, Vaduvur, Tamil Nadu
It is one of the 108 holy vishnavite temples. Vaduvur Sri Kailasanathar swamy temple is one of the famous temple in vaduvur and also it is one of west facing lord Siva temple.and the famous AASAI temple in vaduvur Vadapathi.
This ancient temple is dedicated to Lord Rama along with Sita Devi, Lakshman Dev and Hanuman. The Deities here are swayambhu i.e. self manifested with the exception of Lakshmana whose original Deity is worshiped along with Bharata in a different temple as Rama and Lakshmana.
It is said that Lord Rama stayed at an ashrama of Sages when returning to Ayodhya after killing Ravana. The Sages had requested Him to stay there forever which couldn’t be fulfilled due to His duties as a King. Lord Rama instead ordered Lord Vishwakarma, the celestial architect to sculpt His Deity and leave it outside the ashram. The Sages were spellbound by the divine beauty and requested that the Deities be left behind to which Lord Rama readily agreed. Later, Lord Rama is said to have appeared in the dream of the ruler of Thanjavur in the 18th century and ordered the King to unearth the Deities at Thalai Gnayiru(Thalanayar in Nagapattinam dt, TN) under the arasa maram or sacred fig tree. The Deities were found but the villagers came to know about this and thus prevented the King from taking the Deities away.
The King convinced the villagers and thus left the Deities of Lakshmana and Bharata with them. On the way back, the King and his entourage rested at Vaduvur village where the villagers there also got to know about the Deities and so, wanted to have Them installed in Vaduvur. They had threatened to commit suicide by jumping from the village temple roof if the Deities weren’t installed there. The King acceded to the demands of the villagers and so the Deities were installed in the Rukmini Satyabhama samedha Gopalan temple in Vaduvur. Till today, the worship of the Deities goes on there. The Deity of Lakshmana was sculpted by the villagers.
The temple has four titles awarded to it i.e. Abhimana Divya Desam of Lord Vishnu, Vagularanyam Kshetram, Bhaskara Kshetram and Dakshina Ayodhya.
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