Arunachaleswara Temple, Tiruvannamalai
अरुणाचलेश्वर मंदिर, तिरुवन्नामलाई
📍 Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu
🛕 Online darshan inside this temple: coming soon
At the foot of the sacred Arunachala hill, Annamalaiyar is the Pancha Bhoota Sthalam of fire, where Shiva is worshipped as the Agni Lingam. Its walled complex of about 10 hectares is one of the largest temples in India.
पवित्र अरुणाचल पर्वत की तलहटी में पंचभूत स्थलों में अग्नि तत्व का धाम — जहाँ शिव अग्नि लिंग रूप में पूजे जाते हैं।
इतिहास History
The 7th-century Tamil saints Appar and Sambandar sang of Annamalaiyar in the Tevaram, making it one of the 276 Paadal Petra Sthalams, and Manikkavacakar composed his Tiruvempavai here. The present stone temple goes back to the Chola kings of the 9th century, whose inscriptions record gifts of land and cattle.
The Vijayanagara rulers enlarged it greatly. Krishnadevaraya began the eastern Rajagopuram, 66 m and eleven storeys high, and built the thousand-pillared hall; the tower was completed under the Nayaks. In the 20th century the sage Ramana Maharshi, who meditated in the temple's underground Patala Lingam shrine, made Tiruvannamalai known around the world.
कथा The legend
When Brahma and Vishnu quarrelled over which of them was greater, Shiva appeared between them as an endless column of fire. Vishnu dug down as a boar and Brahma flew up as a swan, but neither found its end, and Brahma falsely claimed he had. The column of light settled here as the Arunachala hill, which devotees revere as Shiva himself. Here too Parvati did penance after playfully covering Shiva's eyes, and he took her back on the full moon of Karthigai.
दर्शनीय Don’t miss
- The Maha Deepam, a great ghee beacon lit on the hilltop at dusk on Karthigai Deepam
- Girivalam, the barefoot 14 km walk around the hill, crowded on every full moon
- The 66 m Rajagopuram and the thousand-pillared hall
- The Patala Lingam shrine where Ramana Maharshi meditated
- Sri Ramana Ashram at the foot of the hill
उत्सव Festivals
मंदिर दर्शन Temple story
The secrets of Arunachaleswara, from our YouTube series.
▶ Watch all 30 Temple Stories on YouTubePhoto: Adarsh Pidugu · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons