Tiruvanamalai – Shiva Temple of Fire & 5 Elements !

Today India’s biggest 7th century Hindu Shiva Temple is on a 10 hectares plot enshrined with 6 sculpted towers reaching dizzy heights – especially the auspicious east tower – Rajgopuram, 7 stories high reachs a height of 217 feet. Welcome to Tiruvanamalai, a great epic historical place which has survived the wrath of time, religion and also survived various foreign invasion to preserve itself of Indian religion, art, culture & Vedic sciences.
Tiruvanamalai was known as a place of saints, sages & godmen. Ramana Mahashri (1879 – 1950) settled here next to his mother’s samadhi and performed his penance here. He established his ashram leading up the hill. His Samadhi too is seen & reverend here. The caves up the hill have divine remnants. Some caves even to this day are used for meditations. A lot of foreigners are seen as disciples here participating in Ashram activities. There are other Ashrams viz., Skandashram, Seshadri Swamigal Ashram and other smaller ones dotted on the picturesque hill encircled town.
7th century saints Sambandar & Appar have written about this great Shivite temple in their Tamil epic poetic work ‘Tevaram’& ‘Thiruvasagam’. Great dynasties have ruled this place and contributed to mighty growth & development. . .
Cholas 850 – 1280 & later Palavas for sometime – were chief patrons of the temple. Hoysalas made Tiruvanamalai their capital in 1328. The Vijaynagar kings have built a 1000 pillared beautiful sculpted hall in the temple premises, which exists to this day.
Krishnadevaraya also ruled this place from 1509 to 1529. He started the construction of temple towers (Gopurams) but unfortunately couldn’t complete it. He entrusted it to his able assistant, Sevappa Nayak who completed it between 1529 & 1580. Lot of inscriptions in Sanskrit, Tamil & Kannada have been found here. In the 17th century Nawab of Carnatic took over this place and the temple was run under the stewardship of Hindus & Muslims. With the decline of the Mugal empire, the Nawab lost control of the town and confusion & chaos prevailed in 1753. French too had their hold in 1757, English took over & ruled the place till 1799.
Tiruvanamalai’s Arulmigu Arunachaleswarar Temple today has 6 poojas per day according to Vedic rites. This Shivite temple is open from 5:30 am to 12:30 pm and again 3:30 to 9:30 pm to pilgrim tourists. The reddish Arunachala hill forms a scenic backdrop of this beautiful large temple. Free lunch is also provided and is supposed to be delicious. The temple trust runs resthouses, choultries & Vedic schools. They have an active website.
The most significant, notable, auspicious, visual extravaganza occurs on the full-moon night in the month of November – December once a year called, ‘Karthika Deepak’. During this auspicious night, the town comes alive with a billion lamps & lights with roughly 3 lakh tourist pilgrim tronging to this small town of 16.3 sq.kms. Vehicular traffic comes to an end. All commuting is on foot. On top of the bull shaped Arunachal hill a 3 tonne ghee lamp is lit as a beacon, which can be seen to great distance. The base of the hill has a 14kms track around which today is well lit, maintained. Tourist pilgrim circumvent this hill in reverence… it’s called Girivalam!
Of late every full-moon night is becoming auspicious to this place. There are lot of small hotels to stay around the temple. This place also has a few luxury hotels to stay too. Tamilnadu Tourist Guest house offering basic facilities is centrally located. It’s wiser to head to this place only with confirmed hotel reservation. The rates of the hotels double, triple on auspicious days.
Tiruvanamalai is well connected by buses & train from Bangalore (Bengaluru). The roads to this place are towards Chennai – Hosur Road. It’s great toll road till Krishnagiri. After that it’s state highways, average roads pothole or under construction road. There are two choices…
1. Reach Krishnagiri, after paying toll traverse for 13 kms towards Chennai getting off the fly-over
Go via Bagur to Tirupattur pass Singarapettai and reach Tiruvanamalai. (No need to enter passing towns – ask friendly locals for directions). Language of communications is Tamil. Please finish your breakfast, lunch or dinner between Bangalore – Krishnagiri toll road highway restaurants – lot’s of them to suit budget & taste. Basic Tamilnadu cuisine only available.
2.Bangalore – Krishnagiri – Morappur – Harur – Theerthamalai – Thanipadi – Tiruvanamalai.
Route No.2 roads is better. But please ask directions at every village & head forward. On this route one can see the lovely Sathnur Dam. Nice picturesque big place with a crocodile park and the mighty river view from the top of the dam. More about this dam in the next issue. But this picturesque stop over will set you back 2 hours seeing the place. Pack your food, nothing available at Sathnur Dam.
The distance from Bangalore to Tiruvanamalai is about 225 kms, 5-6 hour journey depending on the route to take.
Enjoy the picturesque, spiritual, religious place on a weekend. Food for your soul.