Intro
The Partasarathy Temple is located in the Tiruvallikeni
(Triplicane) area of Chennai city. The temple is considered be the
oldest of its kind in the Chennai city. The temple origins date back
to the 8th century A.D., the reference of which has been given in
the Vaishnavite works of the Alwar saints. The Parthasarathy Temple
bears impressions of the popular historic dynasties like Pallavas,
Cholas and Vijaynagar.
Features
Parthasarathy temple was originally built by the Pallavas. The
temple saw its renovation by later dynasties, including the Chola
and the Vijaynagar kingdom. Parathasarathy temple is dedicated to
Lord Krishna. The name Parthasarathy has been derived from two
Sanskrit words Partha and Sarathy. The former word refers to Arjuna
and the later means Charioteer. The temple architectures is a medley
of temple building style. There are inscriptions of the Pallavas,
Cholas and the Vijaynagar kingdom on the temple structure.The temple
besides being dedicated to Parthasarathy, is also revered for
Venkatakrishnaswami and to Ranganathar. The temple, when it was
built, housed five avataras of the deity Vishnu. The structure, as
it stands today, houses the shrines of poular deities like
Venkatakrishnan with Rukmani, Balaraman, Satyaki, Anirudha,
Pradyumna, Rama, Lakshmana, Barata, Sita, Shatrugna, Varadarajan and
Hanuman.
During festival days the place is given a new look and accompanied
by various traditional rites. The floating mirror palanquin which is
brought out, to pay homage to Parthasarathy is one such traditional
practice. The tradition followed a good 135 years of practice and
was temporarily stopped, following the deterioration suffered by the
palanquin.
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