Coimbatore is endowed with a number of Perumal temples ( Temples dedicated to Lord Vishnu ).
Coimbatore is endowed with a number of Perumal temples ( Temples dedicated to Lord Vishnu ). The Peelamedu Sri Karivaradaraja temple is among the famous temples of Lord Narayana. Long ago, marauders from Delhi plundered the south.
The Yadavas of Devagiri, the Kakatiyas of Warangal , the Hoysalas of Dwarasamudra and the Pandyas of Madurai were exterminated by these invaders. They put to death a huge number of people while also shutting a number of places of worship. This included the Meenakshisundareshwarar temple at Madurai. Fear and anarchy prevailed in the country for a couple of decades.
Saint Vidyaranya of Sringeri helped the people by supporting the establishment of the Vijayanagar Empire in the year 1336. The Empire was founded by Harihara and Bukka ( Sangama dynasty ) at Hampi on the banks of Tungabhadra. Kumara Kampanna ( son of Bukka ) and his wife Gangadevi accumulated a huge army and redeemed the Tamil speaking parts of our country by the year 1371.
' Madura Vijayam ' gives an account of the good work of Kumara Kampanna, the warrior who redeemed the south. The Sultan of Madurai was defeated and his tyranny came to an end. A large number of Telugu and Kannada speaking people moved over to the Tamil regions as a result of the same. Most of the migrations took place between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries.
A complete cross section of the society from the Telugu speaking parts settled down in the south. Traders, farmers, warriors, craftsmen, service providers etc., were among the migrants. Some of the soldiers and farmers carried their seeds with them. The black cotton soil farmers came along with their seeds and settled down in places suitable for their activity. Many of them practiced dry land farming.
A set of cotton farmers had settled down near the Sanganur Pallam nearly 500 years ago. The floods in the Sanganur Pallam caused them difficulties. One of the floods threatened their existence. Therefore the farmers sought the permission of the Maharaja of Mysore to establish two new villages. The villages came up after much persuasion. Peelamedu and Pappanaickenpalayam were thus born on 11/11/1711.
It was the day when the famous Mondipalayam Perumal temple was getting consecrated. The founders laid the foundation for the Peelamedu Sri Karivaradaraja Perumal temple on the same sacred day. It was the Nandhana Year, Aippasi Month ( Wednesday the fifteenth ), Rohini Nakshatram. Initially the temple was established in a simple manner. A tiled roof structure came up eventually.
Poongundran of the Tamilnadu Archeological Department surveyed the temple on 23/12/1981 and submitted a report. According to the report, the elephant and the fish depictions found on the southern walls of the Sri Karivaradaraja shrine tell us that this could be due to the fact that Coimbatore was once under of the Naicks of Madurai. The Naick rule began in 1529 under Viswanatha Naick and ended in 1736 during the times of Meenakshi.
However, the region had come under the influence of the Wodeyars of Mysore around the last quarter of the seventeenth century. Perhaps the good influence of Naick architecture might have continued to influence temple construction for a few more generations. Therefore Poongundran was of the opinion that the current sanctum could have come up towards the end of the eighteenth century or the beginning of the nineteenth century. The first graduate of Peelamedu, Vakil E.Balakrishna Naidu has left a chronicle on these findings.
An old inscription found in the temple was studied by Poongundran and going by the style and structure, he stated that it belonged to the nineteenth century. The inscription mentions the date belonging to the Akshaya Year.
The year had occurred in 1806 and also in 1866. Going by the study of Poongundran, it is right to take the year 1806 as the year when the stone construction was created. A wooden ' Garudakambam ' was replaced by the stone one in the year 1861. The utsava vigraha bronzes had been made in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. It is believed that it came from ' Thiruparthanpalli ' a Divya Desam in the Thirunangur region.
Peelamedu Venugopalaswamy Naidu was a great Tamil scholar. He lived during the early years of the twentieth century. The deeply devout Venugopalasamy Naidu was responsible for creating the Ramanuja Koodam at Srirangam. Venugopalaswamy Naidu, P.S.G.Venkataswamy Naidu, Police Venkataswamy Naidu and Sepoy Venkataswamy Naidu were responsible for appointing ' Vadakalai ' priests in the temple. They moved the stone ' Garudakambam ' by 10 feet in order to make it suitable for the ' Vaishnava Sampradaya '. They also made the requisite changes connected with the ' Beejakshara Chakram ' which was under the ' Garudakambam '. It is believed that Peelamedu became progressive, prosperous and successful after this change.
The ' Mahasamprokshanam ' took place in the year 1906. This had taken place after the aforesaid changes had been effected. The Madapalli ( temple kitchen ) , Thirumadhil ( walls ), Vahana Mandapam came up thereafter. The PSG family took interest in the construction of the ' Paramapada Vasal ' ( doors used at the time of the Vaikunta Ekadasi ) and it was inaugurated on 16/1/1931 under the stewardship of P.S.G.Narayanaswamy Naidu.
V.Rangaswamy Naidu of Radhakrishna Mills involved himself with the renovation of the temple gopuram and the base was also created. It was during this time that the lovely looking tiles were placed in the temple and it gives a carpet look.
The construction of the ' Alwargal Mandapam ' and the Mahasamprokshanam took place under his leadership thereafter. Quarters for the temple priests was constructed in the memory of Diwan Bahadur P.S.G.Rangaswamy Naidu and it was dedicated on 22/1/1950. The stone mandapam with doors was removed and the foundation for the Rajagopuram was laid on 4/6/1975. The Rajagopura Thiruppani got completed and the Mahasamprokshanam took place in the year 1982.
L. P. Muthukrishna ( LPM ) Naidu did a lot of work for the Temple. He did so by co or dinating with everyone concerned with the administration. LPM was well known as a construction expert and a multifaceted person. G.V.Doraiswamy Naidu, G.R.Damodaran, G.R.Govindarajulu of the P.S.G Family have contributed towards the temple and its rituals. The most recent Mahasamprokshanam was conducted under the stewardship of V.Ravichandran of the P.S.G Family in 2017. Peelamedu Sri Karivaradaraja Perumal temple has shrines for all the Deities, Alwars and Acharyas connected with the Sri Vaishnavaite tradition.
The huge Rajagopuram, the lovely stone garudakambam, the marvelous Paramapadha Vasal and the benign Lord Sri Karivaradaraja who is ever resident in the company of his Sridevi , Bhoodevi, Perundevi, Andal, Chakrathalwar, Vishwaksena, the twelve Alwars, Saint Ramanuja, Vedanta Desika and Hanuman will continue to add to the spiritual and cultural wealth of Peelamedu.