Imayavarappan Temple

Thiruchengundrur (Thrichittatt), Chengannur, Alappuzha district, Kerala, India

VerifiedDocumented + legend

Also known as: அருள்மிகு இமயவரப்பன் திருக்கோயில் · திருச்செங்குன்றூர்

Deities

Imayavarappan

Traditions

vaishnava

Worship status

active

Coordinates

9.32667, 76.60417

Darshan hours

Daily approximately 5:00 AM-11:00 AM and 5:00 PM-8:00 PM (Thursdays 5:30 AM-11:00 AM and 5:30 PM-7:30 PM), per the temple's Wikipedia article (as Thrichittatt Maha Vishnu Temple); confirm locally as timings can shift for festivals.

Best time to visit

The ten-day temple festival running from Atham to Thiruvonam (i.e., during Onam, August/September) is a major occasion; October to March otherwise for cooler weather.

How to reach

The temple is at Chengannur, Alappuzha district, Kerala; Chengannur has the nearest railway station, and Thiruvananthapuram International and Cochin International are the closest airports.

Festivals

Temple festival (Atham to Thiruvonam) (August/September, 10 days), Vaikuntha Ekadasi (December/January), Sri Krishna Jayanthi (Janmashtami) (August/September)

Associated saints

Nammalwar

The Imayavarappan Temple at Thiruchengundrur — documented as the Thrichittatt Maha Vishnu Temple, where the deity is recorded as Imayavarappa Perumal — is honoured as one of the 108 Divya Desams celebrated in the Naalayira Divya Prabandham, and is unusually well dated among Kerala’s Divya Desams: stone inscriptions place the temple within the Second Chera Empire, roughly 800-1102 CE, and the earliest surviving textual references to it appear in the hymns of Nammalwar from around 800 CE, whose Tiruvaaymozhi verses consecrate this place within the canonical Tamil Prabandham. Set in the sacred landscape of the Pamba river region near Chengannur, this shrine also belongs to the group of Kerala temples that tradition associates with the five Pandava brothers; legend specifically credits Yudhishthira, the eldest, as the temple’s builder.

Architecturally the temple is built without a gateway tower, in a rectangular walled enclosure (Kshetra-Madilluka) with a metal flagpost, an outer pavilion (Chuttuambalam), and a circular central shrine (Sreekovil) roofed in conical terracotta tile — features typical of the older stratum of Kerala temple architecture.

Festivals

Thiruchengundrur observes a documented festival calendar alongside the broader Srivaishnava cycle: a ten-day temple festival running from Atham to Thiruvonam, coinciding with the Onam season (August/September); Vaikuntha Ekadasi; and Sri Krishna Jayanthi (Janmashtami). The temple’s worship blends this local calendar with the wider Tamil Prabandham heritage of the Divya Desams.

Location & Access

The Imayavarappan (Thrichittatt) temple is located at Thiruchengundrur near Chengannur, Alappuzha district, Kerala, one of the Divya Desams clustered along the Pamba river. Chengannur has the nearest railway station, and Thiruvananthapuram International and Cochin International are the nearest airports. Darshan is generally offered from about 5 AM to 11 AM and 5 PM to 8 PM (with slightly later Thursday timings). Verify current darshan timings and travel details with the temple or official sources before visiting.

Sources

scripture: Naalayira Divya Prabandham — Mangalasasanam by Nammalwar
historical record: Temple identity, place name, region classification, coordinates, and Alvar attribution sourced from the 108divyadesam.org dataset (extracted from the published Tamil temple-guide app com.coderays.divyadesam).
historical record: History, festival-calendar, and access narrative adapted from the 108divyadesam.org project's temple-extras dataset (AI-generated, auto-review status, not yet independently verified).
historical record: Independently cross-checked via a fresh fetch of Wikipedia's Thrichittatt Maha Vishnu Temple article on 2026-09-23: confirms this Divya Desam's deity name as Imayavarappa Perumal (matching this entry's 'Imayavarappan'); confirms coordinates matching this entry's existing value (9°19'36"N 76°36'15"E); confirms stone inscriptions dating the temple to the Second Chera Empire (c. 800-1102 CE) and the earliest textual references appearing in Nammalwar's hymns from around 800 CE; confirms Kerala-style architecture with no gateway tower, a rectangular enclosure (Kshetra-Madilluka), metal flagpost, an outer pavilion (Chuttuambalam), and a circular sanctum (Sreekovil) under a conical terracotta roof; confirms the Pamba-river Pandava-shrine tradition, with legend crediting Yudhishthira as builder of this particular temple; and sourced exact darshan hours and the festivals Vaikuntha Ekadasi, the ten-day Atham-to-Thiruvonam temple festival, and Sri Krishna Jayanthi (Janmashtami).

For review

This entry's core identity, deity name, coordinates, and dating (Second Chera Empire, c. 800-1102 CE, with earliest textual reference c. 800 CE in Nammalwar's hymns) are now independently confirmed via Wikipedia, making this one of the better-dated Kerala Divya Desams in this directory. The Pandava-Yudhishthira founding legend remains devotional tradition rather than an archaeologically dated claim.