Ancient Muragan Temple at Hill Station Palani, Tamil Nadu, India. Palani is a city and a municipality in Dindigul district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Palani is pronounced using the special 'L' used in Tamil and is also spelt as "Pazhani" in English.
This temple draws the largest number of devotees in Tamil Nadu.
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| down city from the hills, Ancient Muragan Temple at Hill Station Palani, Tamil Nadu, India |
The History of Palani written by Balasubramania Kavirayar speaks about the glory of this place. This contains 23 chapters in 987 verses, and was written in 1628AD. The Temple Office has released a new and revised book in 1998.
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| Ancient Muragan Temple at Hill Station Palani, Tamil Nadu, India |
The story of Lord Muruga, why He left Kailasa and came to Palani, and how Palani got its name.Lord Siva and Goddess Parvathi are seated atop Mount Kailas. One day, Lord Narada comes and gifts them a celestial fruit.
The two sons of Lord Siva, namely Ganapathy and Murugan, demand the entire fruit for each of them. Siva announces a competition and promises to give the fruit to the one who wins the test. The condition is they should go round the world and reach back first.
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| Ancient Muragan Temple at Hill Station Palani, Tamil Nadu, India |
Both agree to it and Ganapathy makes a circumambulation of His parents, reaches first, and wins the fruit. Murugan who goes on his peacock around the world reaches later and finds that Ganapathy has won the prize. He therefore gets disappointed and, renouncing the world, stands atop the Palani Hill.
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| farms from the hills, Ancient Muragan Temple at Hill Station Palani, Tamil Nadu, India |
Siva and Parvathi come to Palani and pacifies Murugan telling him Muruga, you are yourself a divine fruit ; then why do you need a fruit? Fruit, in Tamil, is called Pazham. Hence this place came to be called as Palani, as Muruga was addressed as Palam Nee. Some say that Palani got its name from Pazhanam (meaning paddy fields )
Archaeological Details
The Palani Hill temple has been constructed on the top of a hill. It is said that the temple was built by a Chera King.
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| Temple inside on the hill, Ancient Muragan Temple at Hill Station Palani, Tamil Nadu, India |
1. EDICTS: On the outer walls of Lord Murugas shrine there are many edicts, made by some Pandya Kings, Sadayavarman sundarapandiyan, Sadayavarman veerapandian, Veera Nanjana wudaiyar , Mallikarjuna Devarayar II and others. The edict by Sundarapandiyan is the oldest of all. He was also Known as Kongupandiyan and was the famous king of the later Pandya Dynasty .
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| Panali town view from the hills, Ancient Muragan Temple at Hill Station Palani, Tamil Nadu, India |
He ascended the throne in 1251 AD. From the inscriptions on the wall, he come to know that many kings have gifted lands and villages to the temple to enable the conduct of regular Poojas. In 1300 AD king Jatavarman sundrapandian gifted a village for carrying a special daily Pooja in his name. It is called Avani Vendha Raman Sandhi.
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| Rope way side at the hill, Ancient Muragan Temple at Hill Station Palani, Tamil Nadu, India |
2. SCULPTURE AT THE HILL TEMPLE : In the front Mandapam of the temple there are many beautiful and artistic sculpture pieces live Siddhas in penance, parrot, peacock, deer, Karpaga vriksha (Divine Tree ) and so on. There are also icons of Dhandayuthapani. His devotees, as also Yaali .
At the entrance near the Raja Gopuram there are two nice sculpture pieces - a young lady carrying her child in the right arm and carrying a flower basket in the left; another beautiful lady , the friend of the first standing in front of her. There are pillars with Yaali in the Paaravel Mandapam. In the Ardha Mandapam there are sculptures of young, good looking damsels. They create a sense of admiration in the minds of the visitors.
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| Ancient Muragan Temple at Hill Station Palani, Tamil Nadu, India |
The Tamils belive that Murugan resides where there is beauty. The Sanctum of Dhandayuthapani Swami is full of art-work. The ceiling here having the Kodungai design speaks of the talent of the sculptors. The balcony - like structure on the outer side of this area adds beauty. Such artistic work can be seen on the pillars of Thiruvavinankudi temple and Periyanayagiamman temple. In the Navaranga Mandapam here there are two pieces the divine dance of Lord Siva and (opposite to this ) the dance of Kali after her shedding her ego .
3. PAINTING: In the temple walls of Periyanayaki Ammam Temple there is a beautiful ancient painting, revealing the art of singers, artists and dancers. It belongs to the Nayak period.
4. ANCIENT COINS : In Palani area , old coins of ancient kingdoms were also found.
WAY TO HILL TEMPLE
There are 5 ways on the hill to reach the Palani Murugan temple. The 4 ways are mentioned below, the 4th way is not widely used by public. It is known asTheertha Pathai - Theertham for Abishegam is brought through this way.
- STEPS ROUTE
- ELEPHANT PATH
- WINCH FACILITY
- ROPE CAR FACILITY
At the starting of the steps route there is a temple for Lord Ganesh ( also known as Vinayagar ). Since this Vinayagar is at the steps, He is known asPaadha Vinayagar ( Vinayagar at steps ).
1. STEPS ROUTE After worshiping the Paadha Vinayagar one starts for climbing the hill through the steps route. The steps route is a scenic route and on the way there is a small temple for Edumban. On the steps there are lot of smallMandabams - people going through the steps route take rest in these Mandabams while climbing the hill.
On the entrance of the steps route the Giant Peacock stone idol is seen.There are exactly 689 steps. While climbing the hill gentle breeze and the scenic beauty of western ghats make one feel less tired of the climbing
2. ELEPHANT PATH The Elephant path was constructed for the facility of Elephants to climb the hill. Since the Steps Route steps are very small for elephants to climb this path was constructed. During the festival days elephants are seen at the palani hill temple ( Palani Murugan Temple ). On the Elephant path there is a small water source ( Theertham ) known as Valli Sonai.
3. WINCH For the facility of children and aged people who are not able to climb the hill there are 3 Winches are currently operating to shuttle the piligrims to the temple. A very nominal charge is collected as fare for travelling in the winch.
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| Ancient Muragan Temple at Hill Station Palani, Tamil Nadu, India |
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| Ancient Muragan Temple at Hill Station Palani, Tamil Nadu, India |
4. ROPE CAR Pilgrims to the hill top temple now use either flight of 693 steps or one of the three winches. Each winch could carry only 34 persons and takes eight minutes to reach the top of the hill from the base station.
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| Rope way, Ancient Muragan Temple at Hill Station Palani, Tamil Nadu, India |
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| Rope way, Ancient Muragan Temple at Hill Station Palani, Tamil Nadu, India |
On the other hand, the rope-car takes only 2.45 minutes to cover the distance of 323 metres over the green covered precipices.
I visited this temple on 2012 March :) hope you all like my travel stroy.. please though this link some where so that my story will reach so many ... www.vedictemplesin.com/
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