| Temples & Legends of Tamilnadu |
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| Temples & Legends Of India |
KUMBAKONAM |
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In this connection it may be appropriate to refer to the incident when Brahma and Surya (Sun) prayed to Lord Vishnu long long ago. Vishnu was pleased with their prayer and created three Vimanas via., the Vaikuntha Vimana, Pranavakara Vimana and Vaideeka Vimana, and installed him self in each and distributed Vaikuntha Vimana to the residents of Vaikuntha (Heaven), Pranavakara Vimana to Brahma and Vaideeka Vimana to Surya. Surya passed on the Vaideeka Vimana to his son Vaivaswanta Manu, who installed it on the banks of the river Sarayu and from him it passed on to Ikshwaku. Ikshwaku heard of the powers of liberation at sight of Pranavakara Vimana possessed by Brahma. He wanted to bring it to earth for the benefit of the human beings. As Vishnu wanted to appear on earth for some time, Brahma had to part with the Vimana, and Ikshwaku got it. When the Vimana came to the earth and was placed by the side of Vaideeka Vimana, both amalgamated into one. The amalgamated Vimana was subsequently brought to Srirangam. Now, coming to the birth of Goddess Lakshmi, it is said that Sage Hema went on pilgrimage and visited all sacred places and tanks. One day, he came across the thousand-petalled lotus with Goddess Lakshmi in it in the Hema Pushkarani or Golden Lotus tank, near the river Kaveri at Kumbakonam, where Brahma and already worshipped Vishnu in a previous birth. As the Goddess was found in the midst of lotus petals, she came to known as Kamalavalli. Sage Hema with great delight took the child to his hermitage and reared her up as his own daughter. |
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| About Kumbakonam | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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