People of south India who are unable to go a long way  toThiruppathi hills to pray the Lord of Tiruppathi  choose the  Lord Venkatachalapathy of Vagulagiri as a substitute God of Thiruppathi Perumal. They consider the Lord of Vagulagiri is nothing but the Lord of Tiruppathi Himself  as the Lord of Thiruppathi has come  to the south purposefully to save them from the  evils  or ill effects out of their life. .They strongly believe that  the Lord of Tiruppathi is pervading in the two SANDAL STICKS which were brought to this hill from Thiruppathi.. The same two sticks which were  consecrated at the first instance is found there even today without any slight erosion or damage to any part of the statue even though daily abishakam is done to the deity with water,milk,curd,honey,smelling powder panchamirtham,,coconut water , santhanam and all. This gives us ample proof  to believe that God is pervading there in these sticks- statue  protecting Him from any damage to the statue  . The  sandal sticks installed in this sanctum  is of a variety of sandal wood that is available in the forests of the hills of Thiruppati . The sandal wood available elsewhere  in the mountains of  south India  is not of  the same variety of wood from which this holy sandal wood sticks are made and  worshipped as God Vagulagiri Venkatachalapathy . It establishes the truth that the Wood to  frame  these sandal wood sticks have  been  brought from the northern parts of India and not taken away anywhere near Karungulam.

Vagulagiri Magathmeiem” written in Grantham  scripts was translated to the Tamil Language for the easy reading of every common man  was done  by Brammasri Venkatachala Sastrigal, son of Mahamaho Upathyaya Krishna Sastrigal of Karungulam. This book depicts how the existing Srinivasa temple and the foot hill temple of Marthandaswara  came to the

picture and how was the new God Sri Venkatachalapathy was consecrated on latter days and how the Lord came into existence  in sandal woods and who was the master from behind  brought It there etc.

The ‘Pushkarani’ water  in the  Thiruppati Sheatram is considered holy The river water of Thamparaparani is also  holy ,But the  Pushkarani water of Thiruppathi mixes with  Tamparaparani water near this Sheatram and makes  the Tamparaparani water more and more holy  The water from Tamparaparani is directly  taken in brass pots and carried over to the hill for  daily abishaka arathana of the Lord Venkatesa.   .

Three things are mentioned about this Shea tram 1)ORANGAPULI 2) OORA KINARU and3)KAYA THENNAI.

ORANGAPULI Orangapuli is a tamarind tree which does not sleep. .It leaves never  close together like other tamarind trees  do elsewhere This tamarind tree remains here on the southern side of the temple for a very long time. On many occasions on the cyclonic days many of the  trees in the plain below this hill had fallen one after another in the current wind blown at that time. But this Orangapuli withstands itself in the hill for a long period of time though the force of the cyclonic  wind is  forcibly active in the hill than in the plains. OORA KINARU is still there in existence, but the KAYA THENNAI is no more there. Kayathennai withered  in course of time and it has been totally  removed from its place.

A well was dug upon the hill  for getting water to use as abishaga theertham to the deities . It was dug very deep but no water source was found below the hill.  Digging   of the well  was stopped and left as it was . One can se

the sandal sticks were this well there at the upper portion of the hill.It is now called ‘Oorakkinaru’. It is believed that the God of the hill doesn’t like to get  water from this  well  for His Abisheha Arathana but prefers water  directly  from the holy Tamparaparani River.  No other trial was  made  after  to dig a well and ever before water has been  carried over to the hill  in brass pots  from Tamparani River for doing abishegam to the deities.

We may proceed to analyze the Stalapuranam to know  how Lord Venkatesa was consecrated there at the first instance..                                                       BAAGLIGAM was one of the kingdom in the country of ancient  INDIA which is now a part of Pakistan Country in some other name. Kalharam was a  fertile and  wealthy state in it. This state was ruled over by a king by name ‘Subakantan’.The people of this state had good regard for his soverginity.But Subakandan was not happy. He had a deep cancer like wound on the portion of his neck. It creates severe pain and it was unbearable. No native doctor of his kingdom could cure it .The wound spread wide and made him suffer extremly.Worms produced in the wound and made him more and more uncomfortable. He realized that “ What cannot be cured by man can easily cured by our deep prayers to the almighty”.Subakandan had good faith to the Lord of the Seven Hills , Sri.Venkateswara.He went to Thiruppati and started  praying the Lord with deep prayers,pujas penances and arathanas with full of heart. He prayed Him with slokas,songs bajans for the relief of pain and cure of the wound. The Lord appeared before him in his dream and ordered him to construct a chariot to surrender it to the temple. It should be made from a good variety of sandal  wood available in the nearby forests. The Lord also insisted him to keep the  two sandal  sticks that wound remain after the construction of the sandal chariot. The Lord would pervade Himself in these sticks and made them holy. The Lord also directed him to proceed in the southern direction carrying the sticks until he could find a hill plunged with Vagulam plants and flowers  near Karungulam or Krishna Tadagam.He would find a suitable spot at this Vagulagiri hill to install them. These actions would bring a permanent cure to his ailment. The king carrying the sticks followed the  direction given by the LORD  and obeyed the instructions  of the Lord. Good omens appeared  and he installed these sticks  between the holy tamarind tree called ‘Urangapuli’ and the existing Sri Srnivasa temple Consecration ceremony was done by the king .He stayed there for many days As his wound was cured completely he returned to his kingdom happily. Daily pujas and arathanas were started to this deity along with the existing deity Sri. Srinivasa  Perumal .From this time onwards people began to worship the two Lords of this temple viz Sri. VENKATACHALAPATHI AND Sri.SRINIVASA PERUMAL. Once upon a time this hill was abundantly covered with VAGULAM Plants and Flowers and  people began to  call this hill as ‘VAGULAGIRI’. A plenty of water source is available below the foot of the hill On rainy season we can observe the excess water at the bottom is coming out The theertham or water coming out is called ‘Sambu Theertham’ It is believed that SIDDAS are still living in Vagulagiri hill in suktha and STHULA FORMSReshi .Agasthier has visited this Vagulagiri Hill several to be with the SIDDAS lived there.

KARUNGULAM                                          

 Karungulam village Or Marthandam Karungulam is located at  Srivaikundam Taluk in Tuticorin District.There are several villages in the same name of Karungulam in Tamil Nadu.But the  village where Vagulagiri exists is a well known one In the Grantham Script it is described as Krishna Thadagam. Thadagam means tank or kulam  this village is surrounded by few tanks. The water in them was blackish in colour and people called it as KARUNGULAM. Lord Marthandaswara’s temple is standing at the foot of the hill  in Vagulagiri Sheatram.’The God and Goddess of the temples on the borders of the village viz.Santhana Mari Amman  at the south  Sri.Angala Eswari  at

the west :Vadakkuvasal Selvi Amman  at the north and  Sudalai Madan  at the east are considered as“Kaval Theivangal” of this village. At the centre of the village is Vagulagiri.Sri.Venkatachalapathy Temple above the hill and Sri Kulasekari Samathe Sri Marthandaswarar Temple at the foot of the hill. Standing  above the hill one can  see all around  the village tanks green fields and the river  and enjoy the beauty             
 

This village is adjacent to ‘Athichanallur’ where people lived long long ago. This village is spoken of as one where  ancient civilization prevailed and is written  in the history under river valley civilization.  There is a place in Karungulam viz KOTTAI VASAL . People have seen the edges of big earthen pots protruding above the ground. These may be the pots in which dead bodies of  ancient people would have been buried. Gold coins of ancient times have been obtained in  pots under the ground when people dug the ground to build houses. Complete evacuation of Kottavasal and other places  may reveal  many hidden facts about this village and also   the participation of these village people to the ancient civilization. FOOT HILL TEMPLE      Marthandeswarar Sivan Temple is situated at the foot of the hill . The Lord SIVA of this temple is consecrated by Surya ,the sun God. The King Marthandavarman and Kulasekara Varman have visited this temple In the Stala Purana of Vagulagiri it is impressed that one should pray the lord Marthandeswara and sri kulasekari  before he  goes   to pray the Lords at the top of the hill. There are plenty of water  resources under  Vagulagiri  hill on the rainy season one can see warm water is flowing out from the hill. This  sacred water is  called ‘SAMBU THEERTHAM’                                            NAVAGRHA GODS Nine in no are consecrated here
with their wives People say prayers made to the NAVAGRAGAS here are more effective because THAMPATHI SAMATHA Navagrahas shower their grace more powerfully. NAVARATHIRI festival for 9 days ,Somavara Arathana on the Mondays of KRITHIKA month, !0 days festivals ends with ARUTHRA DARSAN are popular festivals of this temple.
Once the famous music exponent Sri. NEELAKANDA Sivan visited Karungulam village.This village Karunkulam near Tirunelveli suffered from acute drought due to lack of rains. The people turned to Sri Neelakandan Sivan and took him to their village and begged him to relieve them from their misery. Moved by their plight, he sang a viruttam in praise of Lord Maarthandeshwarar and Mother Kulasekhari:

“pizhaigallelam nee poruppai petravalae
pillaigalukku un kazha vinayae thunaiyallathor
kadhikanom kanndarivai,
mazhaiyenna vandarul tharuvai”

The viruttam was sung with so much faith and bhakti that torrential rain lashed the village for several days

F E S T I V A L S