by Sri TA Varadhan

jIyar wanted to worship the Lords of thirumalai and kAnchipuram once again, and after obtaining permission from Lord ranganAthA, left for the yAtra along with numerous sishyAs including svAmi PB aNNa. First, they went to kAnchipuram to worship the Lord that gives and gives to His devotees - pEraruLaaLan - Lord vardarAja. svAmi maNavALa mAmuni gave us two wonderful slOkAs in sanskrit and 2 pAsurams that describe the temple and the Lord. I paraphrase the sanskrit temple first -
"I fall at the feet of the Lord who is surrounded by srIdEvi and bhUdEvi under the puNyakOti vimAnam, after worshipping the holy pushkariNi that is opposite the bali pIta, Lord vENugOpAla, Lord gnyAnap pirAn, srI bhattarpiraan, srI saTAkOpa, srI kali kari thirumangai AzhvAr, thirumazhisaip pirAn, periya nambi, emperumAnAr, the mudhal AzhVArs, the mudalis that guard the entrance, the abhishEka maNtapam, perundEvith thAyAr, thiru Azhi AzhvAn, thiru anantAzhvAn, chakkaravarthi thirumagan, kariya mANikka varadar, thiru madap paLLi, periya thiruvadi, azhagiya singar, sEnai mudanmaiyAr, and the thiru aththi mAmalai".

This slOka describes the layout of the temple as it was during svAmi maNavALa mAmuni's time. One can see the most of the same layout even to this day in the temple.

Another slOka is as follows - " I medidate on the LOrd whose feet are Lotus feet, the one who is Lakshmi vallabha, whose divine body glows with the light generated by the divine ornaments, whose beautiful hands tells us not to worry and has the gadhA, sankha and chakra, and the LOrd of hasthigiri"

Then, he also composed dEvarAja mangaLam - that beautiful maNgaLa stOtra for the LOrd, a slOka of which we recite every day -
asthi srIsthu na kasthUri vAsanA vAsithOrsE
srI hasthigiri nAthAya dEvarAjAya maNgaLAm

After he performed the maNgaLAsAsanam, the kAnchipuram srIvaishNavAs gave jIyar a maTam to stay, and requested him to give upanyAsams on thiruvAymozhi and rahasyas. jIyar stayed at kAnchi for sometime, during which the annual brahmOtsavam happened. svAmi performed maNgaLAsAsanams to the Lord during the 10 days of the utsavam on the vAhanams. During this time, erumbi appa came from shOlingar to pay his obeisances to svAmi.

The srIvaishNavAs at kAnchipuram requested svAmi to establish a learned person at kAnchipuram from whom they can continue their learning the rahasya granthas and the sampradAyam. jIyar commanded vAnamAmalai jIyar svAmi to bring him svAmi appAchchiyAr aNNa. This svami was a learned scholar and a great srIvishNava that was a descendant of svAmi mudaliyANdAn. jIyar commanded him to reside at kAnchi and perform the darsana nirvAham on his behalf from kAnchi. Further, the local people gave this svAmi a vigraha called "azhaiththu vAzhiviththavar", one of the shat bErAs of the kAnchi temple, that is to this day present in the sannadhi of this thirumALigai.

After this, jIyar and his sishyAs left kAnchipuram and reached thirumalai after worshipping at thiru-k-kadigai (shOLingar).

In thirumalai, a slOka has been given to us by elders again, that describes the temple layout as it was during that time - The paraphrasing is as follows -
"One should worship the big bali peeTA after that the maNtapam known as yamunaith thuraivar (named after ALAvandAr by srI ananthAzhvAn svAmi, who performed pushpa kainkaryam to the Lord of thirumalai), then the entrance that is near the shenbaga tree (called shenbaga vrksha vAsal), srI garudA, the thiru madap paLLi, the thirumAmaNi maNtapam, the Ananda nilaya vimAnam that is covered with gold, sEnai mudanmaiyAr, rAmAnuja, the Lord nrsimha and then Lord rAmA. After that, one should worship the Lord of thiruvEngadam, the one who has faultless glory, the one who has beautiful thirumArbu (chest) that is the abode of Lakshmi and whose eyes are like beautiful lotuses".