Guest guest Posted January 12, 2002 Report Share Posted January 12, 2002 Dear Sri Sreekanth//bhAgavatAs, In most of the Sri Vaishnava temples you will find two types of idols. One is fixed, generally referred as moola vigrahams or primary idols or simply moolavar(s) in Tamizh, and are sculpted according to Vedic guidelines from special stones. Fabulous as they are, many are thousands of years old and are very divine, believed to have been provided by the Lord Himself to fulfill His devotees' request. E.g. Tirupathi / Srirangam. The other type is urchavars or urchava moorthies, are relatively smaller in size and as the name indicates are meant to be taken around town in processions during festivals and provide an opportunity for everyone to experience the Lord. These are brilliant and wonderful icons usually made of five types of materials - pancalOka - alloys of gold, silver, copper, brass, and bronze - and are meticulously handcrafted by professionals per sAstras. What you are referring to is this type. During festivals they are skillfully decorated by experienced people to depict a particular incarnation/form/situation using several custom made design patterns made of accessories like stuffed and embroidered clothes, life-sized objects (wood/metal), flowers etc. For e.g. kAlinganardana - Young Lord Krishna dancing on the hood of the kAlinga snake or Garuda Evai - Sriman narAyan and His consort Sri Lakshmi on Lord's transport - Eagle Chief - GarUda azhwAr. A lot goes into this and is very much an art - bringing the images to life and transporting us to real-life situations back when the events actually happened. Hope this clarifies. adiyEn, Sriram sreekanth [gomoothram] Friday, January 11, 2002 10:57 PM bhakti-list (unknown) dear all i have a doubt. i have seen many pictures in the different websites. moorthies in different postures. if we take srivilliputhoor as example. the same idol is shown in different postures. ie sayanatirukkolam, mohini alnkaram, palli konda kolam etc where the same idol have got different leg and arm postures. how is this made possible are these iods flexible sreekanth ===== Send FREE video emails in Mail! http://promo./videomail/ ----------------------------- - SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH - To Post a message, send it to: bhakti-list Archives: http://ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/ Your use of is subject to Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 12, 2002 Report Share Posted January 12, 2002 I have a doubt. Why is the utsavar a different posture from the moolavar almost always ? Sriram Ranganathan <srirangan wrote: Dear Sri Sreekanth//bhAgavatAs, In most of the Sri Vaishnava temples you will find two types of idols. One <rest of the mail edited out> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 13, 2002 Report Share Posted January 13, 2002 At 09:14 PM 1/12/02 -0800, you wrote: >I have a doubt. Why is the utsavar a different posture from the moolavar >almost always ? > > Sriram Ranganathan <srirangan wrote: > >Dear Sri Sreekanth//bhAgavatAs, > >In most of the Sri Vaishnava temples you will find two types of idols. Dear Sri Venaktaramani: As Sriram Ranganathan mentioned the Uthsava Moorthys are for bringing the Lord out on to the streets of His Raaja Veedhis and neighboring villages on special occasions , so that ALL can have the blessings of the Lord as He comes to us with pomp and splendour. The sick, the lazy ,the elderly and ALL who can not or do not get to the temple to worship Him there can NOW have the blessings of His darsanam with His Devi(s) right in front of their homes.The BhagavathAs have also their darsanam that fills their hearts with joy. Moolavr as Dhruva BhEram stays inside the Garbha Graham. Uthsava Moorthy in most cases are in the standing posture . One of the exceptions is Sri Govinda Raajan at Thillai Thirucchitthirakkoodam. MOOLAVARS are either in standing posture (Thirumalai-Thiruppathi, Oppiliappan Koil , Kaanchipuram ); or in Sleeping/reclining posture ( as at Srirangam , Thirukkudanthai , Thiruvananathapuram and 24 other dhivya desams among the 108 uhanthu aruLina NilankaLs sung by the 12 AzhwArs); or in standing posture in 60 dhivya Desams ( ThiruvallikkENi and 59 other KshEthrams); or in the seated posture as at ThiruarimEya ViNNagaram , Thiru Aali , (near SeerkhAzhi),Thirukkadigai ( ShOlingar), Thirukkoodal ( Koodalazhagar at Madhurai), AhObilam , ThiruppAdakam ( Kaanchi KshEthrram ),Thirupputtkuzhi VijayarAghavan , ThiruppErai (PaanDya Nadu) , ThiruvaNNparichAram ( MalayALa Naadu),ThiruvaraguNamangai, Thiruvaikuntha ViNNagram and Thirupparama Padham ( seated facing South). There are dhivya dEsams , where the Moolavar is in more than one posture (e.g): ThirukkOshtioor, ThiruppullANi , SrivilliputthUr. At Srirangam , there is a special distinction between Moolavar and Uthsavar. Moolavar has been recognized as KrishNan ( DaamOdhara KaNNan) and Uthsavar as Lord Raamachandran . The directions that the Moolavar faces inside His garbhagraham are also different at different Dhivya dEsams. At 79 dhivya Desams , The Moolavar and Uthsavar Face East . At 19 dhivya dEsams, He faces west ( Kaanchipuram et al), At 7 dhivya desams , He faces South ( Srirangam , SiRupuliuoor ,Parama Padham (Sri Vaikuntam ), ThiruppARkkadal et al.He faces north at three dhivya dEsams ( AyOddhi, URayoor and SaaLagramam). There are reasons for the directions they face based on ithihAsams and Sthala PurANam . Independent of all these details , Dhivya Dampathis enter into ArchA forms ( consecrated vigrahams or appear as svyam vyaktha vigrahms) with Suddha Satthva ThirumEni to bless us and unite us with the AchAryans for performing SaraNAgathy to attain Him. BhOgi PaNDigai Day, Vishu Samvathsaram, V.Sadagopan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 13, 2002 Report Share Posted January 13, 2002 Dear Sri Sadagopan - Thank you for your wonderful explanation in just one mail. It was like the extract of Sri Ethiraj's book on 108 divya desams. It is possible to remember the details only by meditating on the divya desams continually. Reading your mail has opened up a few more doubts. What is Dhruva Bheram ? What isthe meaning of Gharba Graham ? I know it refers to sanctum sanctorum but never before thought of the meaning of the words themselves. You had mentioned that in Sri Villiputhur, Thirukoshtiyur and ThirupullAni, the moolavar is in more than one posture. What are the postures ? I am unable to comprehend how the moolavar canbe in more than one posture. Are there multiple deities ? How is Sri Ranganatha recognized as Damodara Kannan ? I was told that Rama incarnated as Ranganatha so that vibhishana can worship Him. Yourd humbly Rajaram V. Sadagopan <sgopan wrote: At 09:14 PM 1/12/02 -0800, you wrote: >I have a doubt. Why is the utsavar a different posture from the moolavar >almost always ? > > Sriram Ranganathan wrote: > >Dear Sri Sreekanth//bhAgavatAs, > >In most of the Sri Vaishnava temples you will find two types of idols. Dear Sri Venaktaramani: As Sriram Ranganathan mentioned the Uthsava Moorthys are for bringing the Lord out on to the streets of His Raaja Veedhis and neighboring villages on special occasions , so that ALL can have the blessings of the Lord as He comes to us with pomp and splendour. The sick, the lazy ,the elderly and ALL who can not or do not get to the temple to worship Him there can NOW have the blessings of His darsanam with His Devi(s) right in front of their homes.The BhagavathAs have also their darsanam that fills their hearts with joy. Moolavr as Dhruva BhEram stays inside the Garbha Graham. Uthsava Moorthy in most cases are in the standing posture . One of the exceptions is Sri Govinda Raajan at Thillai Thirucchitthirakkoodam. MOOLAVARS are either in standing posture (Thirumalai-Thiruppathi, Oppiliappan Koil , Kaanchipuram ); or in Sleeping/reclining posture ( as at Srirangam , Thirukkudanthai , Thiruvananathapuram and 24 other dhivya desams among the 108 uhanthu aruLina NilankaLs sung by the 12 AzhwArs); or in standing posture in 60 dhivya Desams ( ThiruvallikkENi and 59 other KshEthrams); or in the seated posture as at ThiruarimEya ViNNagaram , Thiru Aali , (near SeerkhAzhi),Thirukkadigai ( ShOlingar), Thirukkoodal ( Koodalazhagar at Madhurai), AhObilam , ThiruppAdakam ( Kaanchi KshEthrram ),Thirupputtkuzhi VijayarAghavan , ThiruppErai (PaanDya Nadu) , ThiruvaNNparichAram ( MalayALa Naadu),ThiruvaraguNamangai, Thiruvaikuntha ViNNagram and Thirupparama Padham ( seated facing South). There are dhivya dEsams , where the Moolavar is in more than one posture (e.g): ThirukkOshtioor, ThiruppullANi , SrivilliputthUr. At Srirangam , there is a special distinction between Moolavar and Uthsavar. Moolavar has been recognized as KrishNan ( DaamOdhara KaNNan) and Uthsavar as Lord Raamachandran . The directions that the Moolavar faces inside His garbhagraham are also different at different Dhivya dEsams. At 79 dhivya Desams , The Moolavar and Uthsavar Face East . At 19 dhivya dEsams, He faces west ( Kaanchipuram et al), At 7 dhivya desams , He faces South ( Srirangam , SiRupuliuoor ,Parama Padham (Sri Vaikuntam ), ThiruppARkkadal et al.He faces north at three dhivya dEsams ( AyOddhi, URayoor and SaaLagramam). There are reasons for the directions they face based on ithihAsams and Sthala PurANam . Independent of all these details , Dhivya Dampathis enter into ArchA forms ( consecrated vigrahams or appear as svyam vyaktha vigrahms) with Suddha Satthva ThirumEni to bless us and unite us with the AchAryans for performing SaraNAgathy to attain Him. BhOgi PaNDigai Day, Vishu Samvathsaram, V.Sadagopan ----------------------------- - SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH - To Post a message, send it to: bhakti-list Archives: http://ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/ Your use of is subject to Send FREE video emails in Mail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.