The temple town of Srirangam was filled with religious fervour and spiritual zeal as thousands of devotees thronged the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, the foremost among the 108 Divya Desams, on the auspicious occasion of ‘Vaikunta Ekadasi’ on Tuesday (December 30, 2025).
The illuminated and decorated, sprawling temple corridors reverberated with chants of “Govinda Govinda” and “Renga Renga” as a huge turnout of devotees waited patiently in queues to offer worship to Lord Ranganatha and the processional deity, Sri Namperumal.
The high point of the 22-day annual Vaikunta Ekadasi festival, which commenced on December 19 in the Tamil month of ‘Maargazhi’, was the opening of the ‘Paramapadha Vaasal’, through which the processional deity passed in the early hours.
Sri Namperumal, clad in gem-studded armour and garlands, was taken in a holy procession at around 4.30 a.m | Photo Credit: M. Moorthy
The rituals connected with ‘Vaikunta Ekadasi’ commenced in the early hours, and the processional deity, Sri Namperumal, clad in gem-studded armour and garlands, was taken in a holy procession at around 4.30 a.m. The deity was taken slowly through the ‘Raja Mahendran Thiruchutru’ and the ‘Kulasekaran Thiruchutru’ before reaching the ‘Vraja Nadi Mandapam’.
