Srirangam Madhurakavi Nandavanam

 

The Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to Ranganatha, a reclining form of the Hindu deity Vishnu, located in Srirangam, Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu.

The sacred garden or nandavanam is dedicated to Lord Sri Ranganathar. It covers 4.05 hectares. The garden has an orchard where every tree is reverentially named after the great Vaishnavite saints.

Lord Ranganatha Himself and Ranganayaki Thayar are decorated with flowers and flower garlands only from the exclusive Madhurakavi Nandavanam.

Sri Ramanuja recognised the importance of flowers in the worship of Ranganatha and sought to give an important position to the gardeners who charged the temple atmosphere with beauty and Ananda. When he created the ten groups of servitors known as Pathu-Kothu for the temple, he organized the gardeners as Daasanambis.

“These were the providers of flowers and flower garlands. They laid out flower-gardens, made varieties of flower garlands and bunches called vagaccal, kilimalai, kiliccendu, tandalmalai, kollumalai, kudamalai etc., and decorated the palanquins with the flowers for processions.

The Nandavana in Srirangam which came up nearly 200 years ago thanks to the munificence of Madhurakavi has been tended with affection and devotion by the Ekangis in charge of the flower garden. They follow a strict regimen of personal purity and see to it the garland-in-the making does not touch the ground but kept on a bench. According to temple authorities every year more than 2,000 garlands are woven here and sent to the temple.

Not merely garlands, flowers woven like shawls, tightly strung circlets of champaks or for the crown, flower-chariot (Poonther) and Alum-Pallakku that goes swinging long strands of flowers are but some of the facets of the flower-artistry of the garland-makers of Srirangam.

 

Source

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-editorialfeatures/in-the-garden-of-godconsciousness/article5563813.ece

http://www.srirangam.in/index.html

http://anudinam.org/2014/10/18/srirangam-ranganathaswami-temple-oonjal-utsavam-day-7-nel-alavai/

 

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