108 Divya desams, Sacred temple complex in Tamil Nadu, India.
The 108 Divya Desams are the Vishnu and Lakshmi temples praised in the Naalayira Divya Prabandham, the 4,000 Tamil verses of the twelve Alvars. Of them, 105 stand in India, one at Muktinath in Nepal, and two are held to lie beyond the earth, in Tirupparkatal and Vaikuntham. Tamil Nadu holds 84, including 25 in the Chennai metropolitan area; the rest are in Kerala (11), Uttar Pradesh (4), Uttarakhand (3), Andhra Pradesh (2) and Gujarat (1).
The 108 temples were fixed in the Naalayira Divya Prabandham, the 4,000 Tamil verses of the twelve Alvars, poet-saints active between the 5th and 8th centuries CE. Alagiya Manavala Dasan, an official under the Thirumalai Nayakkar rulers, later grouped 108 of these shrines and wrote a venpa verse for each in the Nootrettu Tirupati Antati.
The name comes from Sanskrit divya, "divine", and desam, "realm". The 108 sites are those praised in the Naalayira Divya Prabandham, 4,000 Tamil verses by the twelve Alvars; these hymns are still sung daily in several Vishnu temples of Tamil Nadu and during festivals. The compilation is credited to Azhagiya Manavala Dasan, an official under the Thirumalai Nayaka rulers, who wrote a venpa verse for each shrine in his Nootrettu Thirupathi Andhadhi.
Most temples open early in the morning and close in the evening, with exact times varying by location. Visitors should wear modest clothing and can often watch the rituals that take place throughout the day.
Two of the 108 sites are located in celestial realms beyond the physical world according to religious texts. These unreachable places are described in the transmitted texts but not visited by pilgrims.
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