Mannargudi situated at a distance of 56 Kms from Nagappattinam is famous for its Vaishnava temple Rajagopalaswamy temple.
After the period of Rajathi Raja Cholan, this temple was renovated by his successor, Kulothunga Cholan during the period of 1074-1125 A.D. and because of this, later this sthalam is called with the other name “Kulothunga Chola Vinnagaram”.
After the Chola empire, the Nayakar kings of Thanjavur, renovated the temple in a grand way.
After a long break, the Samprokshanam was performed.
General Information of Mannargudi:
All the temples that are found in Tanjore district are said to be greatest and have lots of great Perumals found. One among such temples is Mannargudi - Sri Rajagopalaswamy temple.
A proverb, which explains the greatness of Mannargudi, is
"Kovil Paadhi, Kulam Paadhi"
This proverb explains that half (Paadhi) of this Mannargudi Kshetram is surrounded by temple (Kovil) and rest by Kulam (Pond).
Mannargudi is found on the Southeast part of Tanjore and there are lots of bus facilities are available from Tanjore, Kumbakonam etc. In this Mannargudi, other saivam temples are also found which are also said to be greatest.
In Telugu, "Gudi" means temple. Since, Sri Rajagopalaswamy who is also called with the name "Rajamannar", this sthalam is popularly called as "Rajamannar Gudi".
Mannargudi sthalam is also called with other names like, Mannarkoyil, Rajamannargudi, Shanbakaranja vandwarapathy, Dhakshina Dwaraka and Vasudevapuri.
The speciality of this sthalam is that it is said that if we stay for a night in this sthalam, we will get the credit. Which is equivalent to donating 1000 cows to someone. This is well explained by Pulasthiyar. He explains the greatness of this sthalam to Bheeshmar as stated in Mahabharatha as:
"Thathroshya Rajaneemaykaam
Kosahasra balam bhavethi"
