Arunachaleswarar Temple, Thiruvannamalai
திருவண்ணாமலை அருணாசலேசுவரர் கோயில்
Why this temple matters
At the foot of the sacred hill Arunachala, this vast temple honours Shiva as a column of fire, the Agni element of the Pancha Bhoota Sthalams. On Karthigai Deepam night, a beacon lit on the summit turns the whole mountain into a lamp.
History
The sanctity of Arunachala reaches back into the earliest layers of Tamil devotion; the seventh-century saints Appar and Sambandar sang of the hill and its god, and the ninth-century mystic Manikkavachakar composed part of the Tiruvachakam here. The structural temple as we know it took shape under the Cholas from around the ninth century, when royal grants and inscriptions record a flourishing shrine at the hill's eastern base. What followed was one of the great accumulations in South Indian architecture. The later Pandyas, the Hoysalas, and above all the Vijayanagara emperors of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries enlarged the complex outward in successive walled courts, until it covered some twenty-five acres and ranked among the largest temple precincts in India. Krishnadevaraya's era gave the temple its most famous additions, including the towering eastern gopuram and the thousand-pillared hall. The Nayaks of Thanjavur and later patrons continued the work. In the twentieth century the temple gained a new dimension of renown when the sage Ramana Maharshi settled on Arunachala's slopes, drawing seekers from across the world to a hill already ancient in worship.
Architecture
Arunachaleswarar Temple is a textbook of Dravidian architecture at its most expansive. Four huge gopurams face the cardinal directions across three concentric walled enclosures, and the eastern tower, the Rajagopuram, rises through eleven storeys to about sixty-six metres, among the tallest temple towers in India. Its brick-and-stucco mass, begun under Krishnadevaraya in the early sixteenth century, is dense with sculpted deities and guardians. Within the walls lies a small city of sacred structures: the thousand-pillared mandapam with its forest of sculpted columns, the great Sivaganga tank reflecting the towers, subsidiary shrines to Unnamalai Amman, Subramanya, and a pantheon of attendant gods, and pillared corridors that shade pilgrims moving between courts. The innermost sanctum, the oldest part of the complex, houses the Agni Lingam, the fire element of the five elemental shrines. The temple's true genius, though, is its siting. Every courtyard frames the red bulk of Arunachala hill behind the towers, so that the architecture continually defers to the mountain, which tradition regards as Shiva himself, a lingam of fire cooled into stone.
Legends
The founding legend is one of Shaivism's grandest. Brahma and Vishnu, quarrelling over which of them was supreme, were interrupted by an infinite column of blazing light. Vishnu became a boar and burrowed downward to find its base; Brahma became a swan and flew upward seeking its crown. Neither could reach an end. Vishnu conceded, but Brahma falsely claimed success, producing a screwpine flower as witness, and was cursed to have no temples of his own. Shiva then took form as the hill Arunachala so that the unbearable fire of that column might be approached and worshipped. Another cherished story tells of Parvati, who once playfully covered Shiva's eyes and plunged the universe into darkness; she performed penance at Thiruvannamalai until Shiva appeared as a beacon of fire on the summit and merged her into his left half as Ardhanarishvara. Pilgrims hold that merely remembering Arunachala confers grace, a promise found in the temple's Sanskrit praises.
Festivals
Karthigai Deepam, falling on the full moon of the Tamil month of Karthigai (November–December), is the temple's crowning festival and one of the oldest attested celebrations in Tamil literature. After ten days of processions, at dusk a giant cauldron on Arunachala's summit, filled with ghee and camphor, is set alight in the instant the Bharani Deepam flame is shown in the temple below. The blaze, visible for many kilometres, re-enacts Shiva's manifestation as the column of fire, and hundreds of thousands gather to witness it. Every full moon brings its own observance, Girivalam, when vast crowds walk the fourteen-kilometre path around the hill through the night. Maha Shivaratri, the Tamil New Year, Navaratri for the Goddess, and the annual Brahmotsavams complete a calendar in which the temple is rarely without celebration.
The Experience
Time your visit to a full moon if you can. Join the Girivalam pilgrims after sunset and walk the fourteen-kilometre circuit barefoot around Arunachala, passing the eight directional lingams and countless small shrines as the hill glows above; the walk takes around four hours at an easy pace. Within the temple, enter beneath the immense Rajagopuram at first light, when the courtyards are cool and the Sivaganga tank mirrors the towers. Move inward through the enclosures to the Agni Lingam sanctum, then linger in the thousand-pillared hall. The Patala Lingam shrine, where Ramana Maharshi sat absorbed in silence, connects the temple to the ashrams on the hill's southern slope, which reward a separate visit. Expect intense crowds during Karthigai Deepam; the spectacle of the summit flame is unforgettable, but plan lodging months ahead.