Vijayasana Perumal Temple stands in Natham, Tamil Nadu, is a shrine to Vijayasana Perumal (Vishnu) in seated posture, with consort Varagunavalli. It is also known as Thiruvaragunamangai Perumal Temple, Chandran Sthalam.
The temple is one of the 108 Divya Desams, the Vishnu shrines glorified in the Naalayira Divya Prabandham by the Alvar saints, and it is counted as the second of the Nava Tirupati, the nine Vishnu temples on the banks of the Tamiraparani river revered by Nammalvar. Local legend gives two accounts for the site: one describes the sage Romesar performing intense penance for a very long period until Vishnu appeared before him; another tells of the sage Vedavit, who cared for his elderly parents on the riverbank, and after their deaths.
Tamil Nadu carries a distinct temple identity of its own: Land of towering gopurams and living Dravidian temple traditions, from the Chola masterpieces to the great Pancha Bhoota Sthalas.
Darshan hours and daily worship
Published sources do not give a single clean daily window for this temple; see the notes below for what is documented.
Six daily rituals are performed: Kalasanthi (8:00 AM), Uchikalam (12:00 PM), Sayarakshai (6:00 PM) and Ardha Jamam (8:00 PM), each including decoration, food offerings and lamp waving for the deity and consort. Public darshan opening and closing hours remain unconfirmed; renewed research found three conflicting windows across secondary sources (8 AM-12 PM and 1-6 PM; 6:30 AM-12 PM and 4-8 PM; 6:30-11:30 AM and 4:30-7:30 PM), none tied to an official or HR&CE source, and the temple's Google Maps Business listing adds a fourth, distinct pattern (9:00 AM to 1:00 PM and 2:00 PM to 5:30 PM). With four disagreeing sources and no official arbiter, this field stays blank.
Poojas and daily rituals
Kalasanthi, Uchikalam, Sayarakshai and Ardha Jamam are performed daily, with additional weekly, fortnightly and monthly rituals.
Festivals and special-day timings
Regular darshan hours are usually extended, or set aside entirely, on these dates.
| Festival | Period | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Vaikuntha Ekadashi | Tamil month of Margazhi (December to January), ten days | Annual festival observed at the temple. |
| Garuda Sevai | Tamil month of Vaikasi (May to June) | Festival idols from the nine Nava Tirupati temples are carried in procession together, with recitation of Nammalvar's verses. |
History and architecture
Architecture
Dravidian style temple with a five tiered gopuram (gateway tower) and a sixteen pillared granite hall; the sanctum houses the main deity flanked by the consort, with festival images stored within, and a rectangular granite wall encloses all the shrines.
History
Local legend gives two accounts for the site: one describes the sage Romesar performing intense penance for a very long period until Vishnu appeared before him; another tells of the sage Vedavit, who cared for his elderly parents on the riverbank, and after their deaths was directed by Vishnu, appearing as a Brahmin, to perform penance here, upon which Vishnu manifested as Vijayasana Perumal. The place name Thiruvaragunamangai is said to derive from the deity Varagunamangai granting divine vision to a Vedic scholar.
Planning your visit
How to reach
Natham is about 3 to 4.5 km from Srivaikuntam and roughly 34 km from Tirunelveli; the nearest railway station is Srivaikuntam.
Where this information comes from
Confidence: Low. Could not verify exact darshan opening/closing times or entry fee/dress code from an authoritative source even after renewed research including a check of the temple's Google Maps Business listing, which itself added a fourth conflicting timing pattern rather than resolving the disagreement. The temple's Wikipedia article gives only the six-kalam ritual schedule, not public visiting hours. Built era remains unconfirmed; a generic claim of 'early medieval, Pandya and Vijayanagara era' construction found in some sources appears to be boilerplate repeated across multiple Nava Tirupati temple pages rather than temple-specific research, so it was not used to fill this field.