Tirupparankunram Murugan Temple

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Tirupparankunram Murugan Temple is a Hindu temple and one of the Six Abodes of Murugan, located at Tirupparankunram. The temple offers a mystic beauty; is carved in rock and is monstrous in size for such an architecture. According to the legend it is where Murugan married Deivayanai, the divine daughter of the king of heaven, Indra, and he is said to have worshipped Shiva here as Parangirinathar.




I left for the temple after visiting the majestic Madurai Meenakshi temple. It was a great experience watching Devi Meenakshi in all her glory along with the Sabarimala pilgrims. Our crew rested for the day in a near by hotel and woke up the next day to see Tirupparankunram Murugan. The morning breakfast was made fast wit bread and butter and a glass of milk. From there we went straight to the temple.


As we entered I saw Lord Bhairav with numerous lamps burning in front of him.  Moving on with offering for Lord Murugan we got a friend , who guided us into the temple. The temple had a beautiful structure with huge steps and carvings. As we entered the temple, we saw idols of Mahayogi and Ganesha side by side. As a keralite, the difference i see among the tamils is that they give Gurus and Yogi great respect and honor just like Gods. 



There are several architectural features of interest, especially the rock cut portions of this hill temple dating back to the Pandya period and the life sized sculptures in the mandapams of the Nayakar period. An Aasthaana Mandapam with several artistically carved pillars lead one to the towering 150 feet (46 m) high Rajagopuram at the entrance.The main shrine is an early rock cut temple which has cells that house the sanctums of Subramanya, Durga, Vinayakar, Shiva and Vishnu. All the statues are carved on the wall of the parankundram rock. The presiding deity lord shiva is known Parangirinathar and the female deity his consort mother Parvathy is known as Aavudai Nayaki. Panels depicting Shiva's dance of bliss are seen outside the sanctum. These magnificent works of art date back to the Pandya period.

A curious feature of this temple is that the Gods Shiva and Vishnu face each other in the main shrine, and this is a rare thing in ancient Hindu temples. This is because Hinduism always held two distinct worshipping groups - Shaivites  and Vaishnavites. Outside the temple there is a beautiful pond where, according to Temple tradition, the fishes are served with salt and rice flakes by the devotees. There is also a Vedic school adjacent to the banks of the temple pond.This temple was built by carving the hill.
Tirupparankunram Murugan Temple

 There are several architectural features of interest, especially the rock cut portions of this hill temple dating back to the Pandya period and the life sized sculptures in the mandapams of the Nayakar period. Saint Gnana Sambanda, the famous Shaiva Saint of the 7th Century, has visited Thirupparamkunram and sung Devaram on Lord Shiva.
Gnana Sambanda has met the three Tamil chiefs, the Chera, the Chola and the Pandya in this temple and has blessed all the three of them. Sundarar and Sambandar composed the Thevara Pathigam here. Nakkirar sang many poems on this Lord. Tiruppugazh, Kandapuranam and other works speak of the glory of this shrine.

Me and my Saarathi

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