Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple at Srirangam

In hot summer days of 2014, we were in Trichy for a weekend to attend wedding of our photography buddy Narayanan Vinoba. On the sidelines of the wedding we covered a few destinations around the city and one among them was Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple at temple town - Srirangam.

Gopuram and settlement of the temple town

The temple is one of the three temples of Lord Ranganatha situated in natural islands of river Kaveri. The first one - Adi Ranga is at Srirangapattana, the second one - Madhya Ranga at Shivanasamudra and third/final one - Anthya Ranga at Srirangam.

Gopuram at outermost Prakaram - The 240 ft high structure is highest gopuram in India

The temple size is enormous with a 156 acres complex. The largest functioning temple in the world has seven prakaras or enclosures with 21 gopurams magnificent towers providing a unique perspective. The inner five prakaras function as temple and outer two as settlement. The 240 feet high gopuram at outermost prakaram is the highest in India, higher than the eighteen story gopuram at Murdeshwar.

From the tower viewpoint. One has to pay additional amount Rs. 50 for getting this to view point.

One can get massive feel of temple complex by getting to designated photography viewpoint. The entrance to this place is from one of the inner prakaras and one has to pay an entry fee Rs. 50 for getting to the top.

A gopuram at one of the inner prakaras

The temple perenially crowded with devotees. One has to spend sufficient amount of time for darshan of the deity. We could not wait till the darshan time of 7.30 pm, since we had to get back to Narayanan's reception ceremony. 

Fan to beat the heat for people waiting for darshan

There are many Mandapams/Halls in the temple. As per UNESCO link, most of these were added later when the temple was under Vijayanagara empire. The temple is one of the latest submission from India to tentative list of new addition to UNESCO World Heritage site.

Cavalry Pillar

Very thick rope which is used the pull the chariot during temple's utsavam

References:

• UNESCO - Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple
• Wikipedia - Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple
• Wikipedia - List of Tallest Gopurams
• Deccan Chronicle - Bid to get UNESCO Stamp