Srirangam and Tiruchinapalli

After a lot of discussion, we decided to go to Palani only for a day trip later. We realised that we needed an extra day for us to cover our list of temples. My niece Padmaja's son Harish who is a student at SASTRA University in Trichy (Tiruchinapally)was also on our list. But we had no time to see him neither on the campus nor his room (which he and all of us very much wanted to do). We asked him to come and meet us in a hotel instead. He took a bus from his hostel and met us. He accompanied us to the Ranganatha Temple in Srirangam. Where ever they allowed, he took photos with his Cell phone and later on sent them to me. Harish did a great job. He came to the hotel room with us and rested a little bit. Now about the Ranganatha Swamy Temple in Srirangam:
Apart from being the first of the 108 Vishnu Sthalas, Srirangam is also listed as one of the Navagraha Sthalas. I have visited six of them so far. The last one in Tirunallur, of Saturn, I don't think I had visited. The list of Navagraha sthalas is:
Suryanarcoil........Sun
Tirupati............Moon
Palani..............Mars
Madurai.............Mercury
Tiruchendur.........Jupiter
Srirangam...........Venus
Tirunallaru.........Saturn
And I need to add the other two planets Rahu and Ketu:
Thirunageswaram – Rahu
Keezhaperumpallam – Ketu
Well, the rest of the group was not really interested in this aspect. It is just that I am interested in both Astrology and Astronomy.

Srirangam is 2 km from Tiruchirapalli and is the most important Temple for Vaishnavas. The Deity is Lord Ranganatha and is reclining on Ananta Sesha. His consort is Ranganayaki. The area covering this Temple is over 150 acres and is surrounded by the Rivers Kaveri and Kolladam. Well, the Ranganatha Temple in my native town Nellore is on the banks of the river Pennar.

Unlike most deities which face east, Ranganatha faces south towards Lanka to bless Vibhishana (Ravana's brother who befriended Raama) and his kingdom. It is said that Vibhishana returns every 12 years to perform the worship of Lord Ranganatha.

This temple has a very interesting history. It was the headquarters of Sri Ramanuja acharya (who established Vaishnavism??) for many years and it is here that he entered Samadhi at the age of 120.(WOW!!!). His samadhi shrine can be seen here. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu himself made deities of Jagannatha, Baldeva and Subhadra and installed them here. There are other deities in the temple enclosure including that of Laksmi, Sudarsana and Narasimha.
I have visited this Temple also in 1987, but, this time, I got to see in detail. In 1987 it was a package tour of 6 nights and we were rushed in all the Temples. Even in darsan line, like in Tirumala Venkateswara Temple, we were pushed forward by the crowd as well as by the volunteers, priests and the like. Another thing I was uncomfortable with was with the fact that most of these Temples, did not allow non-Hindus after a certain point. There are signs posted and if you missed it, the volunteers/employees stop you very politely ofcourse!! I wondered how they can identify a non-Hindu Indian man!!!I understand the dress-code part.
The architecture again was exquisite. As I promised before, the photos will be posted separately.

Prior to my visiting Trichy, I did not know about Srirangam's location. The name Tiruchy reminded me only of the great mridangam player Tiruchy Sankaran. Do you, all music lovers agree??