Parthasarathy Temple, Triplicane – Venkata Krishnan
Shrine
Presiding
Deity is called as Venkata Krishnan. The deity is also known as Geetacharya. Utsavar
is Parthasarathy. Presiding deity is 9 feet tall. This is the only Vishnu
temple where Perumal appears with a moustache of a Sarathy – conducting
Arjuna’s Rath in the Kurukshetra battle field. A heroic appearance demands a
moustache for a majestic look. Presiding deity Venkatakrishnar-Parthasarathy
appears with this Alankar. He is also praised as Meesai Perumal. Meesai
in Tamil means moustache.
The lord
here stands with well framed shoulders, conch in the right hand, the left
pointing to the feet (Varada Hastha), standing tall, broad, majestic, bigger
eyes, white moustache, wearing knife in the hip, garland of Saligramam and
Adhiseshan adorning his head. Beside Venkatakrishnar stand Rukmini Devi in all
her majesty, sharp nosed, smiling lips holding the lotus flower in her right
hand. Mother Mahalakshmi appears in his chest. To her right is Balarama with a
plough. To the left of Venkatakrishnar is brother Satyaki and next to him are
the son Padyumnan and the grandson Aniruthan.
Discus
is the main weapon of Lord Vishnu. He is without that weapon here. He
vowed that he would support the Pandavas in the war but would not hold any
weapon. As Parthasarathy, he appears without discus. He holds only
the conch to announce the war. Also, he is with two hands only as
Krishna in human form. This is one of the Sthalam where the Perumal shows his
Seva along with his three generations. He is found in standing (Nindra
Thirukolam) position and facing his Thirumugam towards East direction. The
presiding deity is supposed to have been given to Rishi Atreya by Sage Vyasa
for installation in this temple.
It is a
divine experience to stand near the Sannidhi and offer worship. The offering to
the Perumal does not include groundnut oil and chili. Instead ghee and pepper
are added. The Utsava Vigraham bears scars supposed to be from the arrows of
Bheeshma, when he was the charioteer to Arjuna in the Mahabharata war. During
the Day 10 (Pagal Pathu in Tamil) Utsavam relating to Vaikunda Ekadasi in
December-January, Lord appears without moustache from day 6 to
10. During abishek on Fridays he is dressed without moustache.
