Ayyur Varadaraja Perumal Revival 2025

Prabhandham and Vedic Recital every month at the once dilapidated temple near Tiruvarur

It is Thursday (November 20) morning and the sun has been beating down after a couple of days of heavy rain in the Tiruvarur region. The green fields around Katchanam are water logged. Yathulan (Srinivasan) Bhattar has made his way to the Varadaraja Perumal temple in Ayyur after riding over 20 kms from Rayanallur, where he serves as a priest, for presentation of Nalayira Divya Prabhandham and Desikar Prabhandham along with the Vedas. He is joined by two other priests from Srinivasa Perumal temple in Kottur and Varadaraja Perumal temple in Kadanthethi, near Thalai Gnayiru (the place where the idols of Vaduvur Ramar were found by the Thanjavur Prince). 

A twin turnaround

This day was remarkable on two counts. One, not so long ago the Ayyur temple was in a dilapidated state with bats and snakes being the sole inhabitants. The priest, Rajagopalan Iyengar, who passed away last year, aged 89, had been performing Thiru Aradhanam at the temple for many decades riding 8 kms in his cycle from Pinna Vasal (Mavur) though he did not receive any salary from the HRCE department, that administers the temple. His son Sowri Rajan Bhattar has been performing pooja over the last decade and more. In those dark days, each time he opened the lock of the Raja Gopuram, his first look was to see if there was a snake around for that had been the way he had been welcomed in the past. From a temple that had been in ruins, this has been a transformation of a rare kind for such a remote temple. Sowri Rajan Bhattar now performs Thirumanjanam every Hastham for Varadaraja Perumal presenting Thaligai that the villagers are grateful for.

The other is the parayanam initiative by Yathulan Bhattar, who after completing a decade of Vedic Education under Desikacharya and Govindan at the Vaduvur Patshala, has been taking care of the Varadaraja Perumal temple at Rayanallur(https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2022/03/rayanallur-varadaraja-perumal-yathulan.html). Over the last 18 months, he has brought along a couple of other young priests from different remote temples around Thiruthuraipoondi to present parayanam in 7 remote temples in the region, every month without a break.

Devotees Dasarathi turns up and restores the temple out of nowhere

Following a story in this section in 2021 on the dilapidated state of the centuries old temple in Ayyur(https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2021/10/pinna-vaasal-sowri-rajan-bhattar.html), Dasarathi, a devotee from Chennai, came forward to take up the restoration all on his own and within a year delighted the entire village with his rebuilding of the temple. He told this writer on Thursday that he had never visited any of these temples around Tiruvarur and had not even heard of these remote ancient temples prior to reading the story on the then sad plight of this temple and the once poverty stricken life of the priest and his family.

Dilapidated temple in 2021

It is now just over three years since the consecration of the temple and there is a certain vibrancy around the temple complex with the Vedic and Prabhandham recital every month. The Prabhandham members presented Koil Thiruvoimozhi, Ramanuja Nootranthathi, Adailakapathu and Pillayanthathi while Yathulan Bhattar sat all on his own for the Vedic recital. 

                                     New Look - November 2025

It is almost 1pm when they present the Satru Murai in front of Varadaraja Perumal. From no oil to even light the lamp, the Lord wore a handsome look with a beautiful big and colourful flower garland. On the days of the Parayanam, Yathulan Bhattar in addition to presenting the Prabhandham and Vedic verses also doubles up as the Madapalli cook preparing and presenting Kesari. 

A dark and neglected temple not so long ago, the villagers now visit the temple every day and are happy that they are even able to hear the Vedic sounds that reverberates around this small and remote village. Sowri Rajan Bhattar had made Ghee Pongal on this morning and distributes this along with the Kesari brought by Yathulan Bhattar. Two dogs serve as security guards at the temple and they too enjoy the Pongal and Kesari.

Yathulan and his team have to now ride back over 20 kms to their respective temples while Sowri Rajan Bhattar shuts the Sannidhi and heads back with a big smile pleased at the turnaround. It is just over a year since his appa passed away and every time Sowri Rajan Bhattar enters the temple, he remembers the decades when his appa so selfless cycled his way to the temple to perform Thiru Aradhanam. Devotee Dasarathi, one with a broad mind, felt that just restoring the dilapidated temple was not enough. He had read about Rajagopalan Bhattar’s had served for several decades when his family was in a state of poverty living in an old house in the Agraharam in Pinna Vasal, a house that too was in a dilapidated state. As part of his restoration initiative, in which he was already spending close to a crore towards the temple reconstruction, Dasarathi also rebuilt the Bhattar’s house from scratch much to the delight of Rajagopalan Bhattar. 

                               Devotee Dasarathi 

Sowri Rajan Bhattar told this writer that in his final days, his appa reiterated the message that sincere and committed Kainkaryam to Perumal will always be answered by him someday in life. And that the restoration of both the temple and his house was testimony to this. 

Tail Piece

While the Varadaraja Perumal has been restored, the villagers are hoping that someone would take up the restoration of the Krishnan Koil that has been in a dilapidated state for a few years now.

Sowri Rajan Bhattar performs daily Thiru Aradhanam there as well and he is confident that just like the Varadaraja Perumal temple, Krishnan Koil too would one day be restored to a time from the past and that there too the Vedic and Prabhandham recital would be heard sometime in the near future.

Ayyur is about 5kms south east of Katchanam and 15 kms North East of Thiruthuraipoondi.