Daily rituals at Srirangam

The tradition behind the worship

Worship at Srirangam treats the Lord as a living presence who is woken, adorned, offered food and praise, and laid to rest each day.

Published references describe the temple as following the Pancharatra Agama, a body of Vaishnava ritual texts, within the Thenkalai Sri Vaishnava tradition. Worship combines Sanskrit mantras with the Tamil hymns of the Alwars, the Naalayira Divya Prabandham, whose 247 hymns to Sri Ranganatha make Srirangam the most-sung of the Divya Desams. The temple is administered today by the HR&CE Department.

How the day is structured

Official schedule

The HR&CE schedule divides the normal day into four open periods and three closures:

The closures are the periods when worship and offerings take place in the sanctum. A separate official notice may change these hours; check the current notice.

The daily services

Traditional account

In Sri Vaishnava temples the day traditionally follows a sequence of services, which devotees at Srirangam describe in similar terms:

• Waking the Lord. Before dawn the Lord is woken with a suprabhatam-style hymn. At Srirangam this is associated with Thondaradippodi Alwar's Thiruppalliyezhuchi, a hymn composed for Sri Ranganatha.
• Viswaroopam. The first darshan of the day, at the start of the morning open period.
• Morning, noon and evening worship. Purification, adornment, lamps and food offerings, made during the closures.
• The night service. The last offering of the day before the temple closes.

Exact names, timings and details of these services at Srirangam should be confirmed with the temple.

The main image and the festival image

Historical record

According to published references, the main image of Sri Ranganathar is not made of black granite. It is made of sudhai, a composition of lime, mortar and shaligram stones, and is coated with thailam, an oil preparation of honey, jaggery, sandalwood and tree resins. For this reason it is not bathed with water in the way stone images are.

The bronze festival image, Namperumal, is the image that leaves the sanctum for processions and festivals. The HR&CE description of the second prakaram notes a glass chamber in the Chandanu Mandapam where Namperumal stays when he sets out for the brahmotsavam, with large mirrors placed to reflect him as he departs.

Araiyar Sevai

Traditional account

Araiyar Sevai is a sung and enacted performance of the Alwars' hymns by hereditary performers called Araiyars. Tradition credits its institution to Nathamuni, the tenth-century teacher who compiled the hymns. It is performed today in a small number of temples, of which Srirangam is one. The Araiyar wears a conical cap, the araiyar kullai, marked with Vaishnava symbols, and plays small cymbals while singing.

Processions and the temple elephants

Namperumal is taken out in procession on festival days, along routes through the enclosures and streets. The HR&CE portal describes the mandapams and vahanam (processional vehicle) mandapams of the fifth prakaram, and the temple cars kept in the outer streets for the Chithirai and Thai festivals. It also records an elephant shed in the fifth prakaram for the temple elephants Andal and Premi (Lakshmi). For when the major processions fall, see the festival calendar.

Seeing the rituals as a visitor

Devotees experience the daily worship mainly through darshan during the open periods. To plan around the closures, see the timings, and for how darshan works, see darshan and pooja.