Two decades of tireless solo effort leads to a grand consecration at the Veera Raghavan Perumal temple in Vandiyur
51 year old Sundararaja Bhattar has been serving as the sole archakas at the Veera Raghava temple in Vandiyur for 27 years having taking over the role in 1999 at a time when the temple was in a dilapidated state. On this Saturday ( June 20) morning, he sports a happy smile looking at the Raja Gopuram whose construction he has anchored. The consecration took place under a year ago after a gap of almost 30 years. Every devotee that passes by this morning wish him well and exchange pleasentries with him enquiring about his well being, a testimony to the huge devotee network he has built over the last couple of decades.
This assumes even greater importance as he spent his entire childhood in poverty. His appa performed Sannidhi paricharaka kainkaryam at the Sundararaja Perumal temple in Thiru Maliruncholai. Sitting outside the Veera Raghava Perumal Sannidhi, he recounts to this writer his life during his schooling phase “Me and my siblings would have our meal only after our appa returned from the temple with the Thaligai. Sambhavanai was almost non existent with devotees being few and far between in the 1970s. We were dependent entirely on the temple food and grew up eating Sambhaa Satham and Ven Pongal.”
After class X, he learned the Pancharatra Agama at the Kuppan Iyengar Patshala in Srivilliputhur and began performing Paricharaka service at Azhagar Koil in the 1990s. He says his Chittappa had 15 day paricharaka service but did not have descendants and thus the Kainkaryam fell on him.
He recounts his association with Rangaraj Pandey’s family in those years “We were in such dire straits that my appa pledged jewels at Rangaraj Pandey’s appa jewellery shop to run the family. Later he sold historic lands to organise family functions. It was a terrible phase for the family, financially.”
The one silver lining was that though many of the kainkaryaparas went through a challenging life, they were all united and supported each other in whatever way they could. That unity is now missing at a time when all the Kainkaryaparas in temples are amassing wealth. When they were in financial trouble, they were united. Now when they are all rich, one is jealous of the other, says Sundararaja Bhattar pointing to the way temple service personnel have changed for the worse in recent times.
Sundararaja Bhattar would carry several Kudams of water from the sacred tank in Srivilliputhur every morning and would be paid 50 paise for his service.
Azhagar Koil Bhattars inspire him
He credits Ambi Bhattar and his appa Paraswamy Bhattar of Azhagar Koil for taking care of him as one in their family after he made his way to Madurai to perform Paricharaka service at Thiru Maliruncholai, especially at a time when his appa and amma passed away one after another in quick succession when he was still in his teens. He recalls not having money even to perform their final rites such was the financial state of the family in the 1980s.
In 1999, the Veera Raghava Perumal temple lay in a dilapidated state. The previous Bhattar who had performed selfless service for many years left the temple. That was when Sundararaja Bhattar was roped as the archaka by the HRCE at a salary of Rs. 1000!!!
Building a friendly devotee network
He was clear that the devotees had to form an integral part of the temple and began building that network. He was an extrovert right from his childhood and mingled well with people. He was also vocal with his views. He recalls how the Ekantha Sevai of Kallazhagar at the Veera Raghava Perumal temple attracted very few devotees for most of them went away after he stepped into the Vaigai. “Most of them did not understand the significance of the entire trip of Sundararaja Perumal from Thiru Maliruncholai to Madurai for it was to liberated Manduka Maha Rishi from his curse and to provide him with Moksham” says Sundararaja Bhattar looking back at that early phase at the Vandiyur temple.
In that early phase, he would cycle from Simmakkal where he lived in a small rented house to perform kainkaryam every day at Vandiyur.
As more devotees pass by on this Saturday morning, one gets an indication of the positive vibrancy Sundararaja Bhattar has created at the temple as each one of them recall the role he played in restoring this temple to its historic glory. He worked tirelessly for many years and through contributions from devotees built the Thayar, Chakkarathazhvaar and Hanuman Sannidhi assigning one archaka to man each of these sannidhis. Through the devotee donors, he also built the Raja Gopuram that had remained half built during the Thirumalai Nayakar period.
With Kallazhagar having given him the early boost in the 1990s, he continues to go there during all the festivals to support Ambi Bhattar with whom he shares a close bonding (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2026/06/azhagar-koil-ambi-bhattar.html).
As clock ticks to 9am on this Saturday morning, a parent reach out to him to present their son to Veera Raghava Perumal and look up to Sundararaja Bhattar for the process to hand over their son to the perumal of Vandiyur.
The Face of Vandiyur
For the residents of Madurai, Sundararaja Bhattar is the most renowned face at Vandiyur for he has created positivity in 1000s of devotees and the belief in them that sincere prayers will be answered by Veera Raghava Perumal. And in return, they listen quietly to everything he says and support him in all his devotional endeavours.
It has been a remarkable turnaround at this temple one that has been made possible through the sole efforts of Sundararaja Bhattar. With things looking up for him, he has managed to build a own house at Vandiyur. But despite the financial turnaround, almost every single day he looks back at his childhood days to remind himself of the humble background that he had risen from, a phase when he did not know when the next meal would come. Recalling this background from his life in the 1970s and 80s, he says he will forever remain firmly grounded and perform a lifetime of service to Veera Raghava Perumal.
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