Thirukkadigai

Thirukkadigai is traditionally enumerated as number 74 among the 108 Divya Desams — the sacred abodes of Sri Maha Vishnu sung by the Alvars.

Sholingur, also known as"Ghatikachalam", is on the Madras-Bangalore Trunk Road. One can get down at Arkonam Junction and take a bus to Sholingur which is about 27 kms., west of Arkonam. There are also passenger trains which stop at Sholingur station. The temple is about 9 kms. from the station. There are also direct buses from Madras City.

This town is known by many names. Some call it ‘Ghatikachalam’. ‘Ghatika’ means a period of time, ‘Achalam’ means that which does not move i.e. a hill. It is believed that Lord in the form of Narasimha appeared before Prahladha and Saptarishis, in a Ghatika time and gave them Moksha. This place is, therefore, known as Ghatikachalam.

This place is also known as ‘Sholingapuram’. It is said that one of the Chola Kings found a natural Sivalingam here and built a temple over it and called it the Sholesvara temple. Hence this place is known as Chola lingapuram and in course of time, had got corrupted to Chola-singa puram and later as Sholingur. As proof, people refer to a temple for Lord Siva in the middle of the town. The Siva temple, though very ancient, is not regarded very highly now, as the temple of Anjaneya and Narasimha have become more famous and the town derives its chief importance from those two temples. Further as Sholingur is one of the 108 Divya desams and the Azhwars have sung in praise of this Lord and the presiding deity of this town is Lord Narasimha, the origin of the name should

have more affinity to a vaishnavite background. Perhaps this place got the name as Chola singa puram, that is, the city of Lion God and it got corrupted in course of time as Sholingur.

There is no sthalapuranam relating to this temple. But from the pasurams of the Azhwars and from the lives of some of the important devotees of the Lord, one gets to know about the importance of this place and this temple. The Lord here is referred, to by different names by the Azhwars as Akkara Kani (Sweet fruit), Mikkan, Thakkan, Pukkan, Ilamkumaran etc. In Sanskrit, The Lord is known as Bhakthochithan i.e a Lord who rushes to the rescue of His devoteas without minding His difficulties.