4Kms. from Thanjavur junction, on the banks of VeNAtrankarai, are located three temples namely MAmani koil, Manikundram and ThanjaiAali nagar which  are considered as  a single divya desam by Azhwars. Also one can come from Kumbakonam by bus and get down at VeNAtrankarai, as these temples, close to one another, are located on the Kumbakonam to Thanjavur road.

Thanjai MAmani koil:

Moolavar: Sri Neelameka perumAl in the sitting posture facing East
Uthsavar: Srimann NArAyanan
Goddess: Senkamalavalli thAyAr facing East in separate sannidhi
Prathyasham: to ParAsaramuni
Also HayakrEvar, Azhwars and Vendhantha Desikar and GarudAzhwar are decorating the inner prAkAram.

Facing East this temple has a Karuvarai, artha mandapam, mahA mandapam and the temple compound wall.

It is said that here the lord gave darshan to ParAsaramuni physically.

Manikundram:

Moolavar: Manikundra perumAl in the sitting posture facing East
Uthsavar: Srimann NArAyanan
Goddess: Ambujavalli thAyAr facing East in separate sannidhi
Prathyasham: to MArkandeyamuni

Facing East this temple has Karuvarai, artha mandapam, mahA mandapam and the temple compound wall.

It is said that here the lord gave darshan to MArkandeyamuni physically.

It is here that NainAchAryar swamy stipulated that Desika prabhandham must be chanted in all the Dhivya desams during the AnathyayaNa period when the Dhivya prabhandham is not allowed to  be chanted.

ThanjaiAli nagar:

Moolavar: Sri VeeraNarasimha perumAl in the sitting posture facing East
Uthsavar: Srimann NArAyanan
Goddess: Thanjai Nayaki in separate sannidhi
Prathyasham: to MArkandeyamuni

Facing East this temple has Karuvarai, artha mandapam, mahA mandapam and temple compound wall.

It is said that here the lord gave darshan to MArkandeyamuni physically.

Though the temple tower is incomplete here, the temple interior is done anew and kept very well.

Namm Azhwar, Bhoodhath Azhwar and Thirumangai Azhwar have sung  about the lord here in a total of five pAsurams.

sthala purANam:

In krEthAyuga, in the lineage of a king known as madhu, three asurAs were born as brothers.
They were thanjakan, thanDakan and gajamukhan. The three of them performed severe penance
towards sivA. sivA appeared in front of them and asked for their desire. They replied that they wanted immortality.
sivA answered that only vishNu has the power to give that boon;
however he (sivA) will grant that the death for the three brothers will not be through him (sivA)

After recieving that boon from sivA, the three brothers, with a lot of arrogance, started to dominate
all the worlds including indralOka and created havoc. They disturbed all the rishis that
were performing penances and caused untold harm to them. At this time there was a rishi called
parAsura who was performing worship/penance to vishNu. There was drought in the land at that
time and there was no water anywhere except for a small pond near where sage parAsara was
performing penance/worship. The threeborthers, after they had searched a long time for water,
came to the place where sage parAsara was, and drank water from the pond.

On seeing the sage performing penance, they started disturbing him and started causing harm to him.
the sage called out "Hari Hari Hari" to seek the Lord's help in removing theobstacles presented
by the three brothers. Lord vishNu sent garuda to help the sage. garudA destroyed all of the asurAs that
were part of the three brothers' army. However, he could not kill the three brothers.

On seeing this, perumAL Himself came in person and with his discus,cut the head off the first brother - thanjakan. Realising his mistake, thanjakan regretted his deeds and asked perumAL that the
place where he died be named after him. So, the place became to be known as thanjakanUr -
that became thanjakUr and currently thanjAvUr. This perumAL is nIlamEgap perumAL
(thanjai mAmaNik kOvil)

On seeing the death of his brother, the next asurA, gajamukhA came in the form of an elephant
and started to attempt to fight perumAL. He took the form of narasimha and killed gajamukhA. Just
before he died, gajamukhA realised his mistakes and surrendered toperumAL and asked for
mOksha. Since he surrendered, perumAL granted him that wish. This perumAL is called thanjaiyALi.

On seeing his two brothers die, the third brother, thandakAsuran,went deep into bAthALam to hide.
perumAL took the form of varAha,chased the asura into bAthALam and killed him.  the asurA, realising
his misdeeds just before his death, surrendered to perumAL and requested that the place be
known after him. perumAL granted that wish and the land directly above where the asura was
killed became to be known as dhandakAraNyam. perumAL came up into the earth directly
above where  He killed thandakAsura. that place is called thirumuttam - srImushNam, where to this day, perumAL graces all devotees with His kindness in the form of varAha as bhUvarAhap perumAL.

There are three temples in this divya dEsam currently. Even thoughthere are three perumALs,
AzhvArs, while performing maNgaLAsAsanams have taken all three perumALs to be one perumAL.

key points about the divya dEsam:

1. after perumAL came to this place, it is said that kubEra asked viswakarma, the architect for the dEvAs, to build a city here. viswakarma built a city in the form of a garudA that is flying. It
is said that in this city, since it is in the shape of a flying garudA, garudA protects everyone.

2. It is also considered by learned people that the three perumALs, srI nIlamEgan, srI maNikkunRan and srI vIrasinghap perumAl are with srIdEvi, bhUdEvi and nILadEvi in this divya dEsam.

3. the river here is supposed to be the same as virajA nadhi that flows in paramapadam. In tamizh, that river is called veNNARu - a derivative of viN+aaRu.

4. At one time, the three temples were in different locations around thanjAvUr. (nIlamEgap perumAL near maNimuththAru, maNikkunRap perumAL in the part known as kaLimEdu, narasinghap perumAL near a pond called singap perumAL kuLam). During the rule of the nAyakkars, all the three perumALs were moved to their current location.

5. Since all the three perumALs are facing thanjAvUr, the perumAL is called as thanjai mAmaNi - the treasure on thanjai that is protecting it.