This is the story of young Kanikannan, a disciple of Tirumazhisai Alvar, one of the famous twelve Vaishnava Alvars (see 9.6.9). He had such a great devotion to his Guru, the Alvar, that, one day, he took pity on an unknown old woman who visibly suffered a lot because of her hunchback, invoked his guru’s Grace and praying for the cure of her deformity he stroked her back; lo and behold! she became not only a normal woman but she also became young. Hearing about this incident the Pallava King, who ruled Kanchipuram at that time, called the young man and asked him to cure his old age and turn him into a youth (by appealing to his Guru, if necessary) so that he can cater to his sensual needs more comfortably. But Kanikannan refused to oblige for this mundane and unjustifiable need of the King. Taking offense immediately the King banished him from his kingdom rightaway. The devotee that Kanikannan was, he informed his guru of this, took leave of him and went away from Kanchipuram. Tirumazhisai Alvar, very much distressed at the turn of events, decided not to stay at a place where the ruler of the day could not respect the Lord’s devotees. He followed Kanikannan. Before doing that he appealed to Lord Bhujangashayana, the temple deity at Tiruvekka, through a soul-stirring verse to follow them and the Lord did so!
When the Lord thus disappeared from the temple the whole city of Kanchi was enveloped by darkness. The King then realised his mistake and he rushed in search of the two devotees and the Lord Himself, to make amends. The Alvar accepted the prayers of the King and agreed to return to Kanchi with Kanikannan. He now prayed to the Lord Bhujangashayana by the same soul-stirring verse slightly modified, to return to Kanchi, ‘because His devotee was now returning to Kanchi’. Thus the Lord listened to the tune of the devotee both times and now sanctified the town of Tiruvekka once more by His ‘presence’ in the temple. From that day the deity of the temple has been called ‘yathokta-kAri’ , meaning, ‘the Lord who did what was asked of him (by the devotee)’, and in Tamil He is known as ‘Sonna-vaNNam seyda PerumAL’ which means the same thing.
There is one more beauty in this story. When the Lord returned to his place in the temple He reversed His reclining position. And in this new position He remains even now. It is an unusual reclining position of Lord Vishnu, reclining on his left side (that is, reposing His head on His left hand) with his right hand raised in the abhaya-hasta posture, facing west. In the other places like Sarangapani temple in Kumbakonam, Padmanabhaswami temple in Tiruvananthapuram and Ranganathaswami temple in Srirangam, he reclines on his right hand thereby making the abhayahasta position of the right hand not very prominent.