Sri Ulagalantha Perumal Temple is Lord Vamanadeva’s (Trivikrama) temple. The gigantic Ulagalantha Perumal is special to Kanchipuram and a Lord of this size, and in this form, cannot be seen in any other Divya Desam. Sri Ulagalantha Perumal is over thirty five feet in height. Left leg is seen lifted at a right angle to the body, parallel to the ground. Right leg is seen placed on Bali Maharaj’s head. Two fingers on Lord’s left hand stretched out referring to the two steps He took to measure this world. One stretched finger on His right hand indicates the question the Lord posed to Bali as to where He could place his third step.

When Bali Maharaja’s gave his head in charity as the place for Lord Vamana’s third step, Bali Maharaja could no longer get the darshan of Lord. He prayed to the Lord for His darshan. Answering to Bali Maharaja’s prayers, Lord Vamana appeared here as Ulagalantha Perumal.

The gigantic Ulagalantha Perumal is special to Kanchipuram and a Lord of this size, and in this form, cannot be seen in any other temple.

Inside the Sri Ulagalantha temple, there are four Divya Desams namely Thiru Karvaanam, Thiru Kaaragam, Thiru Ooragam and Thiru Neeragam.

Kaar means clouds and Neer means rain or water. Lord Sri Krishna in Bhagavad-Gita Chapter 9 verse 19 says, “I withhold and send forth the rain”, and in Chapter 7 verse 8 says, “I am the taste of water. So, Lord Narayana explains that He Himself is the black clouds which gives the rain for everyone to survive. So, this Perumal is called as Thirukkaarvaanam.

Lord appeared once again before Bali in a smaller form at this place as the serpent Lord Adishesha (Ooragam).

Neer, the water is the primary and necessary element for all the things in this world to survive. To explain this, the Perumal is giving his seva as “Jagadishwar Perumal”. The Perumal is also called as “Thiru Neeragathan” found along with “Nilamangai valli Thaayar”. All the water rushes towards the place where there is a small groove or hole. Like the same way, Lord’s mercy flows into the hearts of bhaktas and fill their soul with bhakti. Neer, the water is said to be cool in nature. Likewise, Lord gives the coolest blessings to his devotees. All living things need water to live and at the same time, the body is also purified by water. By explaining this, Lords tells both the soul and the human body to get purified and attain perfection, we need His help and support. Even if a small hole is found in the boat, the water will flow in. Likewise, if even the small level of bhakti is found in the hearts of his bhaktas Lords mercy will flow into us. But at the same time, if we don’t think and pray to him, he will go out from our life as the water sips out of the small hole found in the vessel. The water flows towards all of the regions. It doesn’t consider any raised lands or the lowered regions to flow. Likewise, infront of Sriman Narayanan, all are one and there is no higher than the other.

Without expecting anything in return, the clouds give rain to the world. Since, Karunakara Perumal resembles as Kaar, the clouds, He doesn’t expect anything from his bhaktas, devotees, but he only expects the pure bhakti from them. Since, the Perumal is not expecting anything but the pure bhakthi and show Karunai (courtesy), the Perumal is called “Karunakara Perumal” or Thiru Kaaragam.

This is the most important temple of Kanchipuram. The entire pastime (original story) revolves around Lord Brahma wanting to serve this deity form of the Lord. Sri Varadaraja Perumal Temple is also called as Devaraja Swamy temple. The shrine is on an elephant-shaped rock called Hastigiri. From that time of Satya Yuga, Lord Sri Varadaraja Perumal is one of the most prominent deities on earth, worshiped by great acharyas.

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu visited Sri Varadaraja Perumal temple during His visit to Kanchipuram in year 1511 A.D. Sri Chaitanya-Charitamrita Madhya lila 9.69-70 mentions: The Lord then visited a holy place known as Vishnu-kanchi. There He saw Laksmi-Narayana deities, and He offered His respects and many prayers to please Them. Vishnu-kanchi is situated about 5 miles away from Kanchipuram. It is here that Lord Varadaraja, another form of Lord Vishnu, resides. There is also a big lake known as Ananta-sarovara. When Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu stayed at Vishnu-kanchi for 2 days, He danced and performed kirtana in ecstasy. When all the people saw Him, they were converted into devotees of Lord Krishna.

Sri Ramanujacarya resided here in Kanchipuram, and he daily worshiped Sri Varadaraja with great love and devotion. We must offer here our prayers of love and devotion because Lord Varadaraja will bestow blessings upon us. We should ask the Absolute Truth Sri Varadaraja, for the highest blessing. The blessing of eternal service to His devotees, the blessing of pure, unalloyed love, unconditional in all circumstances. We should not ask the Absolute Truth for mundane things of this world.

History of Golden and Silver Lizards:

Two disciples of Gautama Rishi used to fill water every day for their Guru. One day, to their surprise, they found a lizard jumping out when they placed the tumbler in front of their Guru. In anger, Rishi cursed them for their carelessness and they instantly turned into lizards. The two disciples stayed here at Kanchipuram as lizards until Indra came to worship Varadaraja Perumal and relieved them from their curse. In memory of this, there is a golden lizard and a silver lizard within the temple hall just outside the Lord Varadarajan main altar.

There are two big gopurams – the eastern gopuram built by Krishnadeva Raya and the western temple tower built by the Pallavas. Temple has beautiful pavilions in the courtyard and a remarkable hundred pillared hall which has sculptures carved on many panels depicting Ramayana, Srimad-Bhagavatam and pastimes of Lord Krishna. Lord Varadharaja Swamy resides in the upper floor.

Beneath the Sannidhi (altar) of Varadaraj, in the ground floor there is a shrine for Yoga Nrsimhadeva. Within the enclosure of the temple is a sacred Pushkarini called Anantha Sarovara.

Apart from the main deity, the temple has the wooden deity of Varadaraja Swamy preserved within a silver box from which water is pumped out every forty years. This wooden deity is the original deity of Varadaraj received by Lord Brahma in the Yajna.

There are two long mandapas under the tank north of the hundred pillar mandapam in the temple, where the forty feet long Athi Varadaraja Perumal in his reclining posture is placed. The wooden deity is brought out for darshan of the devotees once in forty years. Special pujas are offered to Perumal. The temple has a fabulous collection of ancient and precious jewellery presented by the Vijayanagar rulers, Muslim rulers and also the English rulers. There is a very costly necklace presented by Robert Clive of East India Company.

Sri Azhagiya Singar Perumal Temple is half kilometer from Sri Ashtabhuja temple. This temple is the 46th Divya Desam dedicated to Lord Vishnu.

After ferocious demon Sharabha (snake) was killed by Sri Ashtabhuja Perumal, all the demons gathered and were harassing Lord Brahma to do everything possible to stop his yajna. Then Lord Nrsimhadeva appeared on the call of Brahma. The Lord chased the asuras away and decided to stay here out of His own desire to continue protecting His devotees. Since the Perumal himself wished to stay there to help his devotees, this sthalam is known as "Vellukkai". “Vel” means wish with pure affection or love and “ukkai” means satisfying. To ride away the asuras, Lord Nrsimhadeva sits in Yoga position facing west direction as "Yoga Narasima".Sri Vaishnava acarya, Vedanta Desikar had praised Perumal in his celebrated Kamasikashtakam (Kamaasi: Kama + Aasika – standing on His own wish). The vimana above the sanctum sanctorum of Lord Nrsimhadeva is called Kanaka Vimanam. Sage Brugu had worshipped Perumal in this temple. Sri Sudarsana Chakkarathazhwar the deity of Lord Vishnu’s disc graces from a shrine in the outer corridor. Garuda in the Nrsimhadeva shrine appears with his head slightly on a side as if unable to bear the fury of the Lord. The temple is also known as Kamashika Narasimha Sannadhi.

Gajendra Varada Perumal kshetra:
Ashtabhuja temple is two kilometer from Sri Varadaraja Perumal temple. This temple is the 44th Divya Desam dedicated to Lord Vishnu.

Lord Narayana appeared as Deepak Prakash, to dissipate the darkness created by demons to disrupt Lord Brahma’s yajna, then the demons sent a ferocious beast, Sharabha (snake). Lord appeared with eight arms (Ashtabhujha) and killed the demon in the form of Ashtabhuja holding eight different weapons in His arms. The Lord holds a disc (chakra), sword, a flower and an arrow on His four right hands and a conch (shanka), bow (Saranga), keddayam (armour which is used to protect while fighting using a sword) and club (gadha) in His four left hands. The snake is found on the Vayu end of the yajna sala as “Sarabeswaran” in this temple. Lord Vishnu in this place is also called as Adi Kesava Perumal.

Gajendra moksha pastime is associated with this temple. Gajendra Pushkarani is present infront of the temple.

Once the chief of the elephants, Gajendra, along with female elephants, went to enjoy bathing in the lake and they disturbed the inhabitants of the water. Because of this, the chief crocodile in that water, who was very powerful, immediately attacked the elephant’s leg. Thus, there ensued a great fight between the elephant and the crocodile. This fight continued for thousand years. Neither the elephant nor the crocodile died, but since they were in the water, the elephant gradually became weak whereas the power of the crocodile increased more and more. Then the elephant, being helpless and seeing that there was no other way for his protection, sought shelter at the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Sri Krishna. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Narayana seated on Garuda, personally appeared before him. By lifting the trunk, he offered obeisances to the Lord.The Lord immediately pulled him from the water along with the crocodile who had captured his leg. Thus, the Lord killed the crocodile and rescued Gajendra. By the mercy of the Lord, Gajendra became one of the Lord’s associates in Vaikuntha, he got four hands.

Saints Peyazhwar and Tirumangai Azhwar had sung the glory of Lord Ashtabhuja Perumal in their Mangalasasanam hymns. Vedanta Desikar, Manavala Maamuni also has one Mangalasasanam. A separate Mangalasasanam is addressed to mother by Azhwar only in this temple. Vedanta Desikar wrote the stotra called “Ashtabhuja Ashtakam”. This stotra is about Lord in His form with eight Divyabhujas in the Divya kshetram called Attabuya Karam. This temple was built by Thondaiman Chakravarthy who is popularly named as Vayiramoghan. The temple also has altars dedicated to Hanuman, Azhwars, Andal, Chakra and Sarabeswara. Paal Payasam (milk kheer), Aval and Appam are delicious prasadams at this temple.