#Thread on #divyadesams. Divya Desams are Sri Vishnu temples which the 12 Vaishnava saints or the Azhwars have sung in their hymns in praise of Sri Vishnu. There are 108 Divya Desams, 106 can be visited in mortal life. The other two are in the celestial abode of Sri Vishnu.

#azhwar means ‘immersed’. Azhwars are considered to be devotees of Vishnu who have fully immersed themselves in #bhakti. They lived between 5th-8th centuries CE, composing hymns in praise of Sri Vishnu. Their songs are compiled as #DivyaPrabandham containing 4000 verses.

106 #DivyaDesam temples one can visit in this life are located in TN (85), Kerala (11) Uttar Pradesh (4) Uttarakhand (3) Andhra (2) Gujarat (1) and Muktinath in Nepal. It is the dream of every Sri Vaishnava to visit Divya Desams in his/her lifetime. SS via http://shaktipeethas.org 

The Azhwar belonged to different castes and professions. Belief is that the first 3 azhwars were of divine origin. Poigai is an incarnation of Panchajanya (Shrikrishna’s conch) Bhoothath of Kaumodakee (Srivishnu’s mace) and Pey of Nandaka (Vishnu's sword)

The 108 #divyadesams are numbered. Shri Ranganathaswamy temple of Srirangam is the first Divya Desam and #thiruparampada, that is Shri Vishnu’s lotus feet is the last, where the devotee attains Mukti. Ayodhya, Mathura, Vrindavan, Dwarka, Badrinath are Divya Desams in north India.

#Navathirupathi are a group of 9 temples dedicated to Sri Vishnu located near Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu. All these 9 temples are #divyadesams and can be covered in a day. These nine temples were revered by Nammazhwar, one of the Azhwars who came from Azhwar Thirunagari.

These temple have been in worship for more than 1500 years. During the Madurai Nayak period, all these temples were renovated, and expanded.