The Thandalam and Manalur Connection!

Urruppattur Nallan Chakravarthi clan forges the link!

Tradition connecting two different families hailing from different villages steeped in culture.

Manalur and Thandalam came together in a confluence of tradition through a marriage!

Thandalam Adi Kesava Perumal with His consorts!

Manalur Srinivasaraghava Iyengar gets his daughter in marriage to Thandalam Urruppatur Nallan Chakravarti  Narasimhachariyar thereby establishing this unique link between two generations of families of Iyengars living in different places of Tamil Nadu.

 The family linage called Urruppattur Tirumalai Nallan Chakravarthy  seems to be the Nallan Chakravarthy clan that has its origins in Karnataka as well as Tamil Nadu in Kancheepuram,  Tirumalai, that now belongs to Andhrapradesh!

The story goes this way, Urrupattur Achan Pillai (823 – 924) also known as Varadhacharya  was born in Srivatsa gotram,and he was a disciple of Sri Natha Munigal , one day when Achan Pillai went to the river near Kanchi to take bath, he came across a body floating in the river with Vaishnava insignias on it. Achan Pillai observed this and felt that the mortal remains must be  properly consigned to flames and is a must for such a vaishnavite. He immediately retrieved the body and duly consigned it to flames reciting the Veda mantras! Soon the pundits and the religious heads in the town got the message and took exception to this act of Achan Pillai.

During the period he was to perform an annual ceremony for his ancestors and he duly approached the Brahmin priests in the town to come to his house and conduct the same. To his dismay they refused to do it. He was heartbroken and prayed to Sri Ranaganatha, the presiding deity of  Srirangam, Sri Varadaraja the presiding deity of Kancheepuram and Sri Venkatesa the presiding deity of Tiruvenkatam, soon all appeared before him and agreed to conduct the stalled ceremony, accordingly completed the same. He was overwhelmed with devotion and could not even express his gratitude to them formally! The news reached the pundits who were taken aback but refused to budge from their position.  

Suddenly the priests at the Varadaraja temple heard the voice from the sanctum sanctorum which went as follows. “Oorukkellam pollan emakku nallan Achan” meaning that he may be antagonist to the villagers but he is very dear to Me!

Once the King Thondaman who was ruling the region of Tamil Nadu including Tirumala under its jurisdiction was frequently tormented by an Asura called Simhada, the King was annoyed and prayed to the Lord Venkateswara fervently to save the people from the sufferings! The Lord appeared before the King and lent his Sankha and Chakra and ordained the King to vanquish the enemy with them, the King did as he was told and after the victory, He kept the sankha and chakra in his palace and worshipped them as the representation of the Lord on the Hills! During this period the Lord in the temple was without his Sankha and Chakra.  During subsequent generations there were differences of opinion as to the deity  was actually Lord Siva and not Vishnu. It gradually came to the fore and the followers of Lord Siva felt that the temple and deity are actually not Vishnu but of Siva only. During that period Sri Ramanuja who was at Tirumala gave a suggestion that all the insignias of Vishnu the Sankha and Chakra as well as Trishul be kept inside the sanctum and the doors closed at night, and anything that is accepted by the Lord and adorned in the morning by Himself will be the final proof of identity! To this everyone agreed and the procedure was followed with all precautions. Next morning when the doors were opened, every one observed that the deity was adorned with Sankha and Chakra. Though all agreed that the deity to be Vishnu initially, soon there was a dispute once again on the issue.  During this period there was a powerful King a devotee of Lord Siva was ruling the Kalahasti region and King Yadavasa was ruling the Tirumala region. The devotees of Lord Siva approached the King of Kalahasti to come to their rescue and restore the status of Tirumala as a Siva temple. To this the King readily agreed and came with his army to Tirumala and accosted the King Yadavasa, since he was not so powerful as the King of Kalahasti, he pleaded inablility to protect the temple. At that time Sri Varadacharya approached the King of Kalahasti and extensively quoted from scriptures as to the antiquity of Vishnu temple and vouched that the deity is indeed is Lord Vishnu and not Siva. To this the King after deep thinking posed a challenge to all those who support and oppose the views. He ordered a red hot iron horse to be brought and asked each group to assign an able person to mount it and come around the temple! This challenge rattled the Siva devotees and none of them came forward to accept the challenge. But Sri Varadacharya readily accepted the challenge and went to Swami Pushkarini  and took bath and praying to the Lord Vishnu with Vedic hymns! And mounted that horse and started going around as though it was in flush and blood!

All were amazed at this feat  including the King and accepted the verdict that the deity was indeed Vishnu, immediately they heard the voice of the divine through the Archaka that the title“ chakravarty”  is hereby being conferred on Sri Varadacharya! From that day he came to be known as Tirumalai Nallan Chakravarty!

There is also another view that it was not Sri Varadacharya who had earned both these titles but his subsequent descendents as per the chronology of available records. But their names were similar due to the tradition that is being followed in the Brahmin families of descendents.

Thandalam may be one of the villages where the descendents had settled during subsequent period and came to be mentioned along with the name!