The chief of the nine Navathirupathi Vishnu temples on the Thamirabarni, where Adhinathar stands with his consorts beside the tamarind tree of the saint Nammalvar.
At Azhwar Tirunagari on the banks of the Thamirabarni, the Adhinathar temple is the chief of the nine Navathirupathi shrines to Vishnu. A 95-foot gateway fronts the granite-walled enclosure, where Adhinathar stands with his consorts and the shrine of the saint Nammalvar sits beside his sacred tamarind tree.
A granite wall encloses the shrines and waterbodies. The front gateway tower rises 95 feet. Adhinathar stands within with his consorts, and close by is an unusual shrine for Garuda. The shrine for Nammalvar is held as important as that for Adhinathar and sits beside the tamarind tree under which he is said to have lived and composed.
The book places the temple among the Navathirupathi, nine Vishnu temples along the Thamirabarni revered by Nammalvar, and counts it a Navagraha temple dedicated to Guru, or Jupiter. The site is also known as Dhantha Kshetram, Varaha Kshetram, Sesha Kshetram and Teertha Kshetram. The town is recorded as the place where the Divya Prabhandham was later rediscovered by Nadamunigal, and lies close to the pre-historic site of Adichanallur. Worship follows the Thenkalai tradition and the Panchrathra Agama.
Thirukurugur came to be called Azhwar Tirunagari after Nammalvar, foremost of the Azhwars, who probably lived in the 8th century CE and is credited with 1296 verses of the Nalayira Divya Prabhandham. Brought as a silent child to Adhinathar, he is said to have crawled to the tamarind tree and sat in meditation.
After sixteen years Madhurakavi reached him, guided by a divine light, and threw a stone to draw his notice. He asked: if within a little thing is born a living thing, what will it eat and where will it exist. The boy answered, it will eat that and exist there, taken to mean that the surroundings shape the soul and must be changed to reach a higher plane. Legend holds that thirty-seven of the 108 Divya Desam deities appeared before the saint, and he sang of them while Madhurakavi, his disciple, recorded the verses.
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