The Bath That Cheated Death

A Boy Told He Would Die at Nine

King Dhundhumaran of the Ikshvaku line had a son, Swedhan. When sage Vashishta visited, he looked at the boy and said plainly: he will live only till age nine.

The king froze. Is there no remedy?

There is, said Vashishta. Bathe him in the Swedha Pushkarini of Thiruvellakulam — Annan Koil — and make him chant the Narasimha Mrityunjaya mantra under the vilva tree for a full month, without break, from Aippasi Sukla Dashami to Karthigai Ekadashi.

A Month Under a Tree

The king did exactly that. Every dawn the boy bathed in the tank, sat under the vilva, and chanted. A nine-year-old's attention is a small lamp in wind — but Swedhan did not miss a day.

On the last morning — Karthigai Ekadashi — Annan Perumal appeared. Not as a distant Lord, but as elder brother — Srinivasa as Annan (brother) of Tirupati's Srinivasa, facing east with Alamelmangai beside him. Death, which had been waiting at the tank's edge like a creditor, was turned away. The tank has been Swedha Pushkarini — Swedhan's tank — ever since.

Why the Tank Is Called Vellakulam

The village tells the name two ways, and both are true:

Swedha — for the boy who conquered death there.

Vellam + Kulam — flood + pool. Long ago flood waters (vellam) subsided here and left behind a permanent sacred pool (kulam). On its banks the Lord stands as Srinivasan — Poovar Thirumagal pulliya Marban — under the Tattvodhaka Vimana, blessing Swetha Raja, Rudra, Kaliyan and us.

And because Annan Perumal is worshipped as elder brother of Tirupati's Srinivasa, the shrine is called Thenn Tirupati — the Southern Tirupati. What the Lord of Tirumala gives on the hill, the brother gives here by the flood-pool, with the same hands.

Thirumangai Alvar knew. He addressed the Lord here as Anna — not as king, not as father, but as elder brother, the one who rushes when the younger is frightened. Anna, adiyen idarai kalayaye — Anna, lift my affliction. Ten pasurams (Periya Tirumoli 4.7) he gave to this Annan, the only Divya Desam where he used that intimate name. That is why the temple is not called Thiruvellakulam to the locals. It is simply Annan Koil — the brother's shrine.

What would you do for thirty days without break if a child's life depended on it?