Arunachaleswarar Temple glowing bright in devotees’ minds

TIRUVANNAMALAI: Standing in front of the majestic 217 feet high raja gopuram (main tower of entrance) having 11 stories at the Arunachaleswarar temple in Tiruvannamalai is a humbling experience. The massive white structure signifies how diminutive humans are.

One of the most popular Saivite temples of South India, the sprawling 24-acre abode houses Lord Shiva and his consort Parvathi, called Unnamulai Amman. Apart from the wonders of architecture, the temple is also part of Pancha Bootha stals (temples representing 5 elements of nature) of Hindu spirituality. Lord Shiva of Tiruvannamalai Temple is believed to have taken the form of fire in this temple, as celebrated in the annual Deepam (light) festival. This shows why Arunachaleswarar idol is termed agni lingam (made of fire).

Devotees and those interested in south Indian temple architecture should not miss thirumanjana gopuram, peria gopuram and the Ammani Amman gopuram.

The 3rd prakaram (walkway outside the sanctum sanctorum) gains more importance as it comes closer to the kodi maram (flag mast) where hoisting of the flag announces the start of the temple’s Karthigai Deepam festival and the Bali Peedam or stone for sacrifice. While 5 prakarams are inside the temple, the 6th and 7th prakarams are placed outside the temple walls and include the mada streets-roads through which processions of deities are taken through.

Annamalai hill and girivalam

However, no visitor can disassociate from the adjacent 2,668 feet high Annamalai hill from the temple as the temple town is located at its base. The annual Karthigai Deepam festival, which falls in November or December every year, is special for girivalam. Lakhs of devotees come around the temple by foot on the auspicious occasion.

Locals and outsiders wait eagerly to see temple staff carry the giant cauldron on two casuarina poles atop the hill along with 1.50 tonnes ghee for fuel and a slightly more than a kilometre long gada cloth which acts a the wick as the flame has to be kept burning continually for ten days. The highlight of the festival is that the flame can be seen from a distance of 10 kilometres when the devotees fall on the roadside with chants of ‘Arohara.”

Girivalam, a unique journey

The 14 km long girivalam path takes devotees around the base of the hill. The girivalam path has temples for seven lingams on the way. While the Chitra Pournami attracted more than 25 lakh visitors this year, the Karthigai Deepam pournami attracted more than 37 lakh visitors last year.

What could have easily become a logistics nightmare is managed skillfully by the district administration. “This year all the 9 approach roads to town are being upgraded at a cost of over Rs 1,100 cr. We expect to handle more devotees because of the infrastructure upgrade,” an official told DT Next.

The girivalam path too has been fully tarred, pavements covered with paver blocks and encroachments removed. Former collector KS Kandasamy was instrumental in converting withered tree stumps on the path into aesthetic sculptures.

The land of Siddhas

Tiruvannamalai has acquired a special place for modern day Siddhas. For instance Yogi Ram Surat Kumar who hails from Uttar Pradesh landed in Tiruvannamalai and attained samadhi here. He is more known as Visiri samiyar.

More than 600 sadhus live here. But, modern day administration finds it difficult to decide how bonafide a modern day Siddha is as they would like to differentiate them from charlatans.

S Sethu, a long time resident of Tiruvannamalai, says that devotees should be careful as all that glows isn’t gold. “Some of them wear saffron, holy ash on their forehead and cheat the public.”

“We are worried that many could be culprits who arrive here and call themselves sadhus to escape police scrutiny,” said a police official on condition of anonymity.