Sri Srimurti Perumal Temple (Muktinath)

Thirumangai Alvar sang ten pasurams praising this temple under the name Thiru Saligramam, the only pasurams among the entire Naalayira Divya Prabandham composed for a site outside the Indian subcontinent as it is understood in the rest of the collection. It is counted among the Swayamvyaktha Kshetras, the Divya Desams where the deity is believed to have manifested on its own rather than having been consecrated by human hands, and is the site most closely associated with the shaligram, the aniconic ammonite-fossil stone form of Vishnu found in the riverbed below.

Muktinath's sanctity is not confined to Sri Vaishnavism. In Tibetan Buddhism the site is known as Chumig Gyatsa, the "Hundred Springs," and is revered as one of the twenty-four sacred places associated with Guru Padmasambhava, who is traditionally said to have meditated here on his journey into Tibet; local Buddhist tradition also venerates the site as an abode of Avalokiteshvara. Few places anywhere are held sacred so completely across two major religious traditions at once.

The Kali Gandaki river below the temple is traditionally described as the source of genuine shaligram stones, each venerated as a natural, self-manifest form of Vishnu, a belief that has drawn pilgrims here for centuries independent of any built shrine. Muktinath itself means "lord of liberation," and the site has long been approached as a place where devotees seek moksha, release from the cycle of rebirth.

Adjoining the main shrine is the Jwala Mai temple, where natural gas seeping through the rock and a nearby spring feeds flames traditionally described as burning from earth, stone and water together, a naturally occurring phenomenon that has itself been read as a sign of the site's sanctity for both Hindu and Buddhist pilgrims long before it was formally incorporated into the Divya Desam list.

The temple sits at roughly 3,800 metres in the Muktinath valley, at the foot of the Thorong La pass on the Annapurna Circuit, built to withstand a high-altitude Himalayan climate quite unlike the Dravidian temples of South India. Its outer wall is lined with 108 waterspouts, each in the form of a bull's face, through which pilgrims traditionally bathe, the number deliberately mirroring the 108 Divya Desams themselves.

Muktinath is a high-altitude Himalayan site; access can be affected by weather and season, and devotees should check current road and trekking conditions locally before travelling. Pilgrimage here typically combines darshan at the main shrine with ritual bathing at the 108 waterspouts and a visit to the adjoining Jwala Mai flame shrine.