Chennai, August 5: A portion of the wall of the eastern entrance pillar of the world-famous Srirangam Sriranganathaswamy temple in Tamil Nadu, dedicated to Lord Vishnu, collapsed at around 2 a.m. No casualties have been reported in this incident.
This temple is located in Srirangam, 12 km from Tiruchirappalli.
Repair work is said to be underway after cracks appeared in the compound walls of the first and second levels of the eastern entrance. Meanwhile, a portion of the wall on the first level collapsed. This incident created a stir among the devotees who reached the temple in the morning. Saturday is considered auspicious for Vaishnava deities.
At present, the debris is being removed. The Srirangam temple is one of the most prominent of the 108 Divya Desam Vaishnava temples.
The world-famous Srirangam Sriranganathaswamy temple complex is spread over an area of about 150 acres. Lord Vishnu, seated in this huge temple complex, is worshipped as Sriranganathaswamy.
The Ranganathaswamy Temple at Srirangam, situated on the island of Kaveri and its tributary Kollidam, is the largest working temple complex in the world. There is a belief in Hindu texts and Puranas that this region has existed since the beginning of creation.
This temple is surrounded by walls in seven layers in all four directions. The total length of these walls is about 10 kilometres.
Apart from the main temple, there are 50 other temples in the entire complex. There are a total of 21 gopurams in this complex, including 17 huge gopurams.
There are a total of 39 pavilions and nine lakes in the complex. The main mandapam of the temple is Ayiram Kaal. There are 1,000 pillars in this huge pavilion.
