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DEPARTMENT OF TOURISM IMPORTANT TOURIST PLACES AT TIRUVANNAMALAI DISTRICT INDEX S.NO. DETAILS PAGE NO. 1. Tiruvannamali District Map 1 2. Important Places Distance Chart 2 3. History of Thiurvannamalai 3 4. Arunachaleshwarar Temple 4-6 5. Ramanar Ashram 7-9 6. Seshadri Ashram 10-12 7. Yogi Ramsurat Kumar Ashram 13-14 8. Sathanur Dam 15 9. Erikuppam Sani Bhagavan Temple 16-17 10. Padavedu Renugambal Temple 18-20 11. Panduranga Temple, Thennangur 21-22 12. Pachiamman Temple, Vazhapanthal 23 13. Javvadhu Hills 24 14. Parvadha Hills 25-28 15. Shenbaga Thoppu Dam 29 16. Jain Temple, Tirumalai 30 17. Vedhapurishwarar Temple, Cheyyar 31-33 18. Hotel Tamil Nadu Photo – Tiruvannamali 34 Page No: 1 1. TIRUVANNAMALI DISTRICT MAP Page No: 3 3.HISTORY OF TIRUVANNAMALI Tiruvannamali is an ancient temple town in TamilNadu with a unique historical back ground. It is one of the holy town that finds a place in the poems written by reputed Tamil saivaite poets.(padal petra sthalam). Several important facts are found in the stone inscriptions in the walls of temple prakarams. Also many details were available through inscriptions found on the copper plates. The four great Tamil saivaite poets Sambandar, Sundarar, Appar and Manickavasagar have written about the history of Tiruvannamali in their literary work that stands unparalleled. They are Thevaram and Thiruvasagam. Arunagirinathat has also written beautifully about the history of Thriuvannamalai and this Lord Arunachalaeswarar temple. The ancient kings starting from the Chola Dynasty period read from the Tamil works and started reposing more faith on Lord Arunachalaeswar. They started contributing their share by constructing many Gopuram, mandapams, and shrines. Making steady additions to the temple structure over the last one thousand years. During the reign of King Krishnadevarayar of Vijayanagaram, Lord Arunachalaeswar temple saw many buildings and structures in the form of gopurams and mandapams came to be built. Since King Krishnadevarayar was a staunch devotee of Lord Shiva. Most important among them is the Rajagopuram that is 217 feet high. This is believed to be the second highest Gopuram in the India. According to the history of Tiruvannamali, this temple is the largest temple in India built exclusively for Shiva and Parvathi. Kings like Ballala who was another Shiva devotee contributed many structures to this temple. History says that Shiva himself pleased with this king’s kindness and generosity came forward to perform the kings final rites since this king was childless. Another history about Tiruvannamali on how Lord Shiva took the form of fire is explained as, when once Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu had a quarrel, Shiva in order to sort out this problem took the form of fire and challenged them to find his crown and feet. Both of them failed and Brahma in the process of finding out tells a lie and Shiva gets annoyed with Brahma and curses that he should not have place of worship. Hence it is believed that there is no temple for Brahma any where in India. Thus at Tiruvannamali Lord Shiva came to be worshipped by devotees in the form of fire. And it is one of the pancha bootha sthalas in Tamilnadu. Page No: 4 4.ARULMIGU ARUNACHALESWARAR TEMPLE Distance: Tiruvannamali to Arunachaleswarar Temple - 1 K.M. Tiruvannamalai is a world renowned pilgrim centre located at the foot hills of Annamalai hills. It came to be built over a period of more than thousand years. Many kings particularly the Chola and Pandiya Kings. Apart from the King Krishnadevaraya in the 15th century. This temple city is about 80 kilometres away from Katpadi or otherwise known as Vellore. This temple can also reached from Chennai traveling to a distance of about 180 kilometres. Shiva and Parvathi are the two deities that are worshipped here at Arunachaleeswar temple. Shiva is prayed here in the form of Agni. One of the panchaboothas that is used as an element to incarnate this earth or universe. Shiva is known by devotees as Annamalayar or Arunachaleswarar. And this is believed to be the largest temple in the world dedicated to Shiva. The history of this Annamalayar temple dates back to thousand years. Mention has been made in the Thevaram and Thiruvasagam, both great works in Tamil. Page No: 5 The greatness of this Arunachaleswarar temple was glorified through poems written by salivate poets Appar, Sundarar, Manickavasagar, and Sambandar. This is also well known as the Padal Petra Sthalam in Tamil besides few more temples in Tamil Nadu that enjoys this status.Many kings of those periods have contributed their share to the growth and welfare of this Arunachaleswarar temple. Construction was going on at a steady pace over the last thousand years indicating its importance and patron received by this temple from the public. It has continuously expanded due to the initiative of the kings and the public contribution. The Arunachaleswarar temple has a unique structure with a 66 metre high gopuram consisting of thirteen storey tier. The temple has seven prakaras and nine gopurams. The tallest gopuram was built by king Krishnadevaraya in the fifteenth century and it is believed to be the second tallest gopuram in the world. This tower is called as Rajagopuram located on the eastern side. Arunachaleswarar temple is spread over 25 acres of land. Out of the seven prakaras, the first two prakaras is said to be built by the Pandiya kings and the remaining prakaras by the Cholas and other kings. It has two big tanks named as Brahma Theertham and the other as Siva Ganga Theertham. It has a massive thousand pillar hall built by the ancient kings. In the thirteenth century the Hoysala kings from Karnataka built some sannadhis and prakaras in the temple. The most significant factor in this temple is that lord Shiva is worshipped in the form of fire. Every year during the month of Karthikai, the flame is lit on the hill top and this ritual is witnessed by millions of devotees who gather here from all corners of the world. This festival is widely called as Karthikai Deepam in Tamil. Devotees consider greatly auspicious to witness this fire every year since Shiva or Arunachalaeswar is prayed as Agni at Tiruvannamalai. Shiva is also called as Annamalayar and Parvathi as Apitakuchambaal by many of their devotees. This temple is also considered unique since fire being one of the five elements of Panchabootham is attributed to this Arunachalaeswarar temple and Shiva takes the form of this fire. The other elements that falls under the Panchaboothas are space (Akash), water (Jalam), wind (Vayu), and earth (Bhoomi) Each of these five elements of Panchaboothas are associated to different places of worship in Tamil Nadu and Andhra. Water is associated with a temple in Thiruvanaikaval, Space is attributed to a temple at Chidambaram, Earth at Page No: 6 Kanchipuram and Wind at Sri Kalahasthi in Andhra nearer to Tirupathi. At Arunachaleswarar age old traditions and formalities are still in vogue. When it relates to worship the local community at Tiruvannamalai are involved in the rituals. They are the temple priests, administrators, temple staff, trustees, palanquin bearers, guards, bhajan singers, musicians and other important artisans.The ceremony includes bringing the Ganga theertham on the elephant from the holy tank located at the southern part of the town. This water is brought through the Thirumanjana Gopuram on the south side. This water is utilized for cleaning the second prakara entrance. Then Shiva and Parvathi are woken up and Arunachaleswarar is taken on a procession to the main temple and Parvathi is taken to Unnamalaiamman temple. Then the first pooja starts every day in the morning and conducted at regular intervals and timings for a total number of six times a day.All devotees go round the hill and it is called Pradakshina and it is usually done during the full moon day (Pournami). About five lakh devotees go round this Annamalai hill every full moon day and it around 13 kilometres in distance. This practice of doing Pradakshina regularly helps the devotees to stay spiritually, mentally and physically fit. ********** Page No: 7 5.R AMANA MAHARISHI AS HRAM Distance: Tiruvannamali to Ramana Maharishi Ashram - 2 Km Tiruvannamalai is also synonym to Saint Ramana Maharishi as it is to Lord Arunachalaeswarar. Ramana Maharishi was born in a simple and poor family at a small village near Madurai. He was born in the year 1879 on 30th December. Venkatramana was his real name. After his father’s death when Ramana was only in his teens, he with his mother moved to his uncle’s house in Madurai. It was here that Ramana met a person from Tiruvannamalai who came to his uncle’s house at Madurai. After hearing some news about Tiruvannamalai from that person, he was very impressed on going to see Lord Arunachalaeswar at Tiruvannamalai. Later Venkatramana left to Tiruvannamalai along with his mother. He settled there and fervently started praying to Lord Arunachalaeswar and continuously sat in penance for many days. Saint Ramana Maharishi’s teachings drew many people towards him and today after 58 years after his nirvana there are millions of followers. These devotees repeatedly visit his ashram to receive his immortal blessings. They particularly visit his ashram during the Maha Shivarathri day, and many others visit through out the year. He continuous to live among them through his valuable teachings andphilosophy. The town of Tiruvannamalai is located about 120 miles away from Chennai. It is exactly in the south west direction to Chennai. One can reach Ramana Maharishi ashram that lies mere two miles from the Tiruvannamalai railway station lying between Villupuram and Katpadi in the South India.