At a distance of four km from Tirunelveli Railway Station, Sri Rajagopala Swamy Temple is an historic Hindu temple located in Palayamkottai space of Tirunelveli in Tamilnadu state. Also referred to as Sri Vedanarayana Temple, this is among the oldest temples in South India and likewise the most effective locations to go to in Tirunelveli.
This temple is dedicated to Lord Vishnu and is worshipped as Rajagopala Swamy and Vedanarayan Perumal. This east dealing with temple dates again to the Pandiya interval. In keeping with legend, the demons had been giving lot of troubles to Indira, the king of Devas. As soon as, Arjuna went to Indra’s kingdom, he requested Arjuna to defeat and kill them and free him. Arjuna destroyed them by utilizing his Pasupathastra. Happy Indra gifted the Gopala Swamy idol which he was worshipping. Few days later, Lord Krishna appeared within the dream of Arjuna and requested him to go away the idol in Ganga which Arjuna did. The Pandiya king Sripathy bought the idol whereas bathing in Ganga, introduced it to this place, put in and constructed this temple and named the Lord Azhagiya Rajagopalan.
The temple of Sri Vedanarayan is large with spacious interior and outer prakarams. The idol of the Lord is of 15 ft top in a sitting posture with 4 arms flanked by Vedavalli and Kumudavalli Thayar within the sanctum. The Utsav Murthy of this temple is named as Sri Rajagopala Swamy also called ‘Mannar’. This shrine can also be referred as Azhagiya Mannar Rajagopala Swami Temple.
Brahmotsavam in Panguni (March-April), Garudaseva on Purattasi Saturdays (September-October) and Vaikunda Ekadasi in December-January are the foremost festivals celebrated on this temple with nice pomp and fervor.
Timings: 6 AM – 11 AM & four PM – eight PM