Place · fire-linga temple town · India
Tiruvannāmalai
/t̪iɾuʋaɳːaːmalai/
Also known as Arunāchala, Arunāchala / Tiruvannamalai, Tiruvannamalai, Tiruvannāmalai
Tiruvannamalai is a temple town at the foot of Arunachala hill in northern Tamil Nadu, roughly 190 kilometres southwest of Chennai. The Arunachaleshwara temple, one of the largest in India at 25 acres, houses Shiva as the fire element (agni) of the Pancha Bhuta Sthalams. The hill itself, 800 metres high, is worshipped as a manifestation of Shiva, and the 14 kilometre Girivalam circumambulation of its base is performed by hundreds of thousands each full moon.
- Date
- c. 7th Century CE onward (attested)
- Periods
- Classical and Puranic Age, Regional Flourishing, Islamic Age and Bhakti Traditions, British Colonial Age, Republic and Living Practice
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Tradition
- Purānas; Tamil Shaiva hymns; Ramana Maharshi tradition
- Confidence
- Mixed / layered — The sacred mountain and temple are established; the fire-linga origin belongs to Purāṇic and Shaiva traditions.
- Location
- 12.225, 79.075
Worth knowing
The Karthigai Deepam festival each November lights a massive cauldron of ghee and camphor atop Arunachala, visible for 30 kilometres across the plain, commemorating Shiva's manifestation as the infinite fire column that Brahma and Vishnu could not measure. The Girivalam is performed clockwise and barefoot, with millions circumambulating on pournami nights, making it one of the largest recurring pilgrimages in India. Arthur Osborne, Paul Brunton and later Robert Adams helped bring Ramana's Advaita to Western audiences from this site.
Connections (3)
- Ashram atRamana Ashram, Tiruvannamalai
Ramana Maharshi arrived at Arunachala in 1896 at sixteen and stayed fifty-four years without leaving, which is why a hill the tradition describes as self-manifest fire is also now a twentieth-century ashram with an international following. The two coexist without much friction: the Deepam festival lights a beacon on the summit each Karthigai, and the fourteen-kilometre girivalam round the hill is walked by both sets of visitors.
- In the same set asChidambaram
Two of the five Pancha Bhuta Sthalams, the temples where Shiva is worshipped as one of the elements: Tiruvannamalai as fire, with the hill itself as the linga and the annual Karthigai Deepam lit on its summit, and Chidambaram as space, where the sanctum's central object is nothing at all — a curtain drawn back on empty air. The scheme distributes the five elements across the Tamil country and one Andhra site.
- CampaignBegum Hazrat Mahal
Begum Hazrat Mahal declared her son Birjis Qadr the Nawab of Awadh at Lucknow on 7 July 1857 and led the subsequent Lucknow Residency siege against the British East India Company forces. Her Awadh base at the Chattar Manzil in Lucknow was the political centre of the 1857-1858 Lucknow uprising. The March 1858 British recapture of Lucknow under Colin Campbell forced her flight to Nepal with Nana Sahib.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Tiruvannamalai”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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