Art and Architecture of the Temple
The Venugopalaswamy temple is erected inside a big enclosure with wide-spread prakara and has five-storied mahadwara gopuram on the eastern side. The temple has mandapas and shrines. There are Garuda mandapa, mahamandapa, Snapanamandapa (hall for the ceremonial bath of deities), and ardhamandapa situated inside the prakara.
To the opposite of the main entrance of the temple, there is a shrine for Anjaneya facing the main temple. In front of the main temple, there is alankara mandapa on the south-eastern side. This mandapa is a big hall with pillars. The front pillars represent Lord Vishnu with four hands and dwarapalakas holding gadhas.
One of the pillars in the temple has a sculpture of Vaishnava saint and musician Tallapaka Annamacharya. The temple contains the garbhagriha, antarala, mukha mandapa and open pillared mahamandapa. The garbhagriha of the main shrine contains the images of Navanitha Krishna and Chakratalwar. The garbhagriha is surmounted by two storied vimana.
Venugopala is one of the common depictions of Lord Krishna playing flute. Erect in tribhanga pose, the image will be that of a boy standing and holding the flute in two hands and the right leg bent at the knee, sometimes having a cow by his side, which will be shown as licking the sole of his right leg.
The image will have peculiar head ornaments like peacock feathers, or sometimes with kireetam (crown). Venugopala is generally surrounded by cowherds and maids. In this form, he is conceived to be delighting with his enchanting music the hearts of the cowherds, the maids, and the cows that are his companions. In this image, the rapture of music is depicted on the face.
The Venugopalaswami temple has many Venugopala figures in the company of cows. Inside the mahamandapa there is a Garudalwar shrine facing the presiding Deity. This mandapa contains 32 pillars which are carved with following interesting sculptures-Venugopla, Vishnu, Balakrishna, Kaliyamardana, the incarnation of Kurma, Hanuman and Ganapati.
In front of the maha mandapa, there is a Balipita and Dhvajasthambha. There are shrines for Lord Kodanda Rama, Lakshmi, and Hanuman. The Kodanda Rama shrine houses the deities of Lord Sri Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana.
The rajagopuram of the Venugopalaswami temple was erected by Perumalaraju and it faces the east. The gopuram was built in five stories.
- The eastern side of the gopura is carved with fine sculptures of Sri Rama, Sita, Garuda, Vishnu, Balakrishna, chaturbhuja Vishnu with his consorts Sridevi and Bhudevi on either side.
- The southern side of the gopura is also carved with fine sculptures of Vishnu seated on Adisesha, Ugra Narasimha, panchamukha Narasimha, panchamukha Anjaneya, Nataraja, Trivikrama and Lakshmi Narasimha.
The second story of Gopura contains interesting images of Pattabhirama, Sri Rama installing Siva Linga, Lakshmi Narayana, Venugopala and Radha devi.
In the temple, one of the mandapa enshrined the images of Alwars, Ramanuja, and Utsavamurtis (processional deities) of Venugopalaswami and his consorts Rukmini and Satyabhama.
