Padmanabha Perumal copper(Miniature)

Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to Ranganatha (a form of Vishnu), located in Srirangam, Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, India. Constructed in the Dravidian architectural style, the temple is glorified by Alvars in their Naalayira Divya Prabhandam. and has the unique distinction of being the foremost among the 108 Divya Desams dedicated to the god Vishnu.

It is the most illustrious Vaishnava temples in South India rich in legend and history. Beyond the ancient textual history, archaeological evidence such as inscriptions refer to this temple, and these stone inscriptions are from late 100 BCE to 100 CE.[6] Hence, “making it one of the oldest surviving active temple complexes in South India”.The Deity finds a mention in the great Sanskrit epic Ramayana which is dated around 800 to 400 BCE which also pushes the existence of deity to the same era, which shows that the temple is minimum 2500 to 3000 years old archeologically and traditionally 30 lakh years old.The temple has played an important role in Vaishnavism history starting with the 11th-century career of Ramanuja and his predecessors Nathamuni and Yamunacharya in Srirangam. Its location, on an island between the Kollidam and Kaveri rivers, has rendered it vulnerable to flooding as well as the rampaging of invading armies which repeatedly commandeered the site for military encampment. The temple was looted and destroyed by the Delhi Sultanate armies in a broad plunder raid on various cities of the Pandyan kingdom in early 14th century. The temple was rebuilt in late 14th century,the site fortified and expanded with many more gopurams in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was one of the hubs of early Bhakti movement with a devotional singing and dance tradition, but this tradition stopped during the 14th century and was revived in a limited way much late