Temple Series 7: How many Lord Vishnu temples are there in India and where are they all?

 No of Temples:

There is a proverb in Tamil:

“Do not live in a village where there is no Temple”

That means, there are as many or more temples as the number of villages in India.

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No of Ancient Temples:

I do not know about whole of India, but in Tamil Nadu itself there are 38615 ancient temples of 800 to 5000 years old. It covers entire spectrum of Shaivite, Vaishavite, Shakti, Murugan and Vinayakar and few Jain temples.

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Lord Vishnu Temples:

There are 108 Vishnu Temples in Indian Subcontinent certified as “Divya Desams” by 12 Tamil Mystics Alwars. These temples still follow “Mangalasan” or “Standardised worship rituals”as prescribed by Alwars and other Teachers in 5–9 th centuries and later.

These 108 Divyadesams include:

1.Tirumala Tirupati, the temple patronised by Vijayanagara Emperors.

2.Yes, worlds largest functioning hindu temple ThiruvaRangam (or Sri Rangam) also one among them.

3.Richest temple Tiru Anantha Puram included.

4.Worlds Tallest Temple Gopuram in 1956 and Tamil Nadu State Emblem, Thiruvilliputtur (or Srivilliputtur) Andal (who wrote Tiruppavai) temple.

5.The 106 earthly Divya Desam temples are spread over the Indian states of

Tamil Nadu (85),

Kerala (11),

Uttar Pradesh(4),

Uttarakhand (3),

Andhra Pradesh (2),

Gujarat (1), and

Country of Nepal(1)- Muktinath.

The last two are believed to be outside earthly realms.

6.One can find the idols of Vishnu in any of these three, lying, sitting and standing positions in Divyadesams.

• Kidantha Thirukkolam ( Sleeping Position ) – 27 Divya desams
• Veetrirundha Thirukkolam ( Sitting Position ) – 21 Divya desams
• Nindra Thirukkolam ( Standing Position ) – 60 Divya desam

Annexure: What is Tirupati mean?

Vishnu in Tamil is “PeruMal” and Lakshmi is “Tiru”

1. Mal (Peru Mal)
2. Tiru Mal (Lakshmi included)
3. Sri and Vishnu-
4. Sri and her Pati-
5. Tiru and her Pati -
6. Tirupati. and there are 108 Tirupatis.

Annexure: Sri Vaishnavism

Kindly note these temples belong to Sri Vaishnavism. It is necessary to know the difference between different sects of Vaishnavism.

1. South India worship Vishnu or Narayana, called Perumal as their founder, and are followers of Mayonism or Sri Vaishnavism.
2. While North regard Vasudeva-Krsna as their founder and are followers of Brahmanic Vaishnavism.
3. The poems in praise of Vishnu in Tamil language are collectively known as Naalayira Divya Prabandham(4000 divine verses) which is considered as a sacred text.
4. Yes.There are plenty of literature available dealing with philosophical doctrines.
5. The Sanskrit Bhagavata Purana is essentially a Sanskrit "translation" of the bhakti of the Tamil Azhvars.
6. Within Sri Vaishnavism, there are two sects+ Thenkalai (Tamirabharani River) Vadakalai (Kaveri River)

Ellam Narayan Tiruvarul; only penned by Mohan N R