Ranganathaswamy Temple

Srirangam, an island town between the Kaveri and Kollidam rivers near Tiruchirappalli, holds the foremost of the 108 Vaishnava Divya Desams: the temple of Ranganatha, Vishnu reclining on the serpent Shesha.

From the eleventh century the teachers Nathamuni, Yamunacharya and especially Ramanuja made it the headquarters of the Sri Vaishnava tradition. Disaster came with the Delhi Sultanate: Malik Kafur's raid of 1311 carried off the golden image, and the invasion of Muhammad bin Tughluq in 1327 left the temple deserted; in 1337 the Ranganatha icon was being carried secretly from village to village.

Only after Kumara Kampana's Vijayanagara forces overthrew the Madurai Sultanate was the image reinstalled in 1371. Vijayanagara kings and their Nayaka governors then fortified and enlarged the complex over two centuries, adding gopurams, the thousand-pillared hall and granaries.