Thirupullani

Thirupullani is traditionally enumerated as number 42 among the 108 Divya Desams — the sacred abodes of Sri Maha Vishnu sung by the Alvars.

, This is one of the famous Divya desams in Pandya Nady It is approachable from Ramanathapuram. One has to alight a Manamadurai Railway Station or get down at Ramanathapuram and take a bus to reach this place. While referring to Thiruppy.. lani divya desam one has to simultaneously refer to sethukaraj In the earlier days people used to refer to the'boundries of the country by saying from Himalayas in the North to Sethukarai in the south. Thus, this divya desam is almost the southern boundry of our sub continent. The moolavar here is known as Adi Jagannathan. He is seen in a standing posture. There are two thayars here. One is known as Kalyanavalli and the other is known Padmasini. The theertham is Hema theertham, Chakra theertham, Agasthiya theertham, Hamsa theertham, Varuna theertham, Dharuna theertham, Rama theertham, Ksheera nadhi, Kanva nadhi, Hiranya nadhi, Ratnakara samudram (Adi Sethu). The sthala viruksham is Asvatta viruksham. The Vimanam is Kalyana vimanam. In this place God appeared to Pullaranya Muni, Samudra Rajan, Devalar Muni and Kanva Maharishi. There are two other sannidhis very close to this divya desam which are equally famous. One is the sannidhi of Dharbasayana Raman. The other is the sannidhi of pattabisheka Ramar. In this chapter, the stories connected with all these three sannidhis will be related.

This place is known as pullaranyam as also Thiruppullani, Pullanai, Thiruvanai, Adisethu, Dharbasayanam, Ratnakara Kshetram, Nalasethu, Saranagathi Kshetram and as Pullan Kadu. There is an old proverb associated with this place. The proverb in Tamil runs as follows:

“Thiru Anai Kana Aruvinai illai"

Translated this means that if one sees the bridge built by Srirama in this place, all the problems will get resolved. The sthala puranam of this place is related in Agneya puranam in the nine chapters where Bhuvanakosam is being described. Besides

all the books which deal with the story of Ramayana also mention the greatness of this place, as Rama before going to Lanka visited

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this place and it was He who was responsible for buildinga bridge across the ocean во as to cross over to Lanka and to rescue the divine mother from Lanka. Thus, the sthala puranam of this place is told even in Valmiki Ramayanam, Kamba Ramayanam, Tulasi Ramayanam, Adyatma Ramayanam, Raghu Vamsam etc.