The image that would not be lifted
The war in Lanka is over. Rama has defeated Ravana, and before parting he entrusts a sacred image of Vishnu to Vibhishana, Ravana's brother, who is returning to Lanka.
Vibhishana carries the image toward Lanka. On the bank of the Kaveri he sets it down. When he comes back to lift it, it will not move.
The account gives the reason in a single line: Vishnu himself chose to stay. He remains here, on the island the Kaveri makes at Srirangam, as Ranganathaswamy.
That is the whole of the story in the written source we can point to. The fuller version told at Srirangam — the image's long history before Rama, in the world of Brahma and in the house of the Ikshvakus at Ayodhya; the local king who received it; and the condition, often repeated, that explains why the reclining Lord faces south — belongs to the Sriranga Mahatmya and to secondary works we have not yet read. Those details are left out rather than repeated at second hand.
What the short account does explain is the place itself: a great Vishnu temple on a river island in the far south, held to have come from Ayodhya by way of Lanka's king.
Where this account comes from
- Government: Ministry of Tourism, Government of India — Incredible India, "Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple", Tiruchirappalli destination page incredibleindia.gov.in · seen 2026-10-09
- Temple administration: Arulmigu Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam — Tamil Nadu HR&CE temple website, home page (island in the Kaveri) srirangamranganathar.hrce.tn.gov.in · seen 2026-10-09