While Kumbakonam may be regarded as the temple city of the Thanjavur district, with innumerable temples – virtually one in every street – the outskirts of Kumbakonam are actually rather densely filled with temples, far more than most cities and towns.

On the way from Kumbakonam to Jayamkondam, via the suburb of Koranattu Karuppur, on the western side are villages like Kadichambadi, Tirupurambayam, Alamankurichi and Eragaram, all of which are replete with temples. Similarly, on the eastern side of the road, are Koranattu Karuppur, Tiruvisanallur, Tirunallur and Kallur.

The hamlet of Tirunallur, or Nallur (not to be confused with the Tirunallur to the southwest of Kumbakonam), is home to the amazing Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple as well as the small but quaint and beautiful Varadaraja Perumal temple. These two temples are located virtually at opposite ends of the east-west street, which therefore must have been an Agraharam back in the day (and perhaps still is, although there are virtually no obvious signs of it today).

While the temple does not have a recorded sthala puranam, it makes up for the lack of one with its simplicity and elegance.

Going by the temple architecture here, this temple must be between 500-800 years in age.

Despite the exterior look, the temple premises is very well maintained. At the time of our visit, the caretaker was an extremely aged lady who lived on the premises itself.

Upon entering the temple is the madappali on the lef,t and straight ahead is a small mandapam for Garuda. Straight ahead is a vavvaal-nethi mandapam inside which is the main garbhagriham for Varadaraja Perumal. This mandapam has a corridor, at the end of which is the garbhagriham guarded by two dwarapalakas. Inside, Varadaraja Perumal is in nindra kolam, with Sridevi and Bhudevi on either side. Outside in the mandapam, are vigrahams of other deities, including at least two Anjaneyar vigrahams. There is no separate shrine for Thayar or Andal, either inside the mandapam or outside in the prakaram.

From the outside, it is evident that the temple is made of granite stone, and later renovations including to the base / adhishtanam havfe been made with brick and mortar. Going almost all the way around the temple’s perimeter is the nandavanam / garden. Overall, the temple presents a serene environment for prayer and meditation.