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| Karthikai Deepam 2021. latestnews.fresherslive.com |
Tiruvannamalai town, a renowned pilgrim center in India, is at the foot hills of Arunachala hills. It is in this town lies the popular Arunachaleswarar Temple dedicated to God Shiva. Here, he represents one of the 5 important Pancha Booths or Boothas - Agni (fire). Built several centuries ago, the temple is associated with various ruling dynasties of past era, particularly the Chola and Pandiya Kings, besides the Vijayanagara rulers like Sri Krishna Devaraya.n This temple town is about 180 km from Chennai and roughly 80 km from Vellore city.
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| Karthikai Deepam. pinrest.com |
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| Thruvannamalai karthikai Deepam. tamil.boldsky.com |
In this temple Shiva is also worshipped as Annamaliyar and his consort Parvati goes by the name of Unnamalai Amman. Various Tamil Saivite saints sang in praise of the lord and their devotional hymns are compiled in the Thevaram and Thiruvasagam. Mention may be made of Appar, Sundarar, Manickavasagar, and Sambandar who glorified the lord in their hymns. One of the largest Shiva temples of Tamil Nadu just like Madurai Meenakshi temple, Thirunelveli Nellaiappar temple, Thiruvarur Sri Thiyagaraja swami temple, etc., it well known as the Padal Petra Sthalam in Tamil. The huge temple evolved over a long period of time, thanks to the various rulers of different dynasties.
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| Arunachaleswarar temple, Thiruvannamalai. upload.wikimedia.org |
Occupying over 25 acres of land, the Arunachaleswarar temple has a unique Dravidian architecture with a 66 meter tall tower/ gopuram covering 13 floors/tiers. It was built by none other than king Krishna Devaraya in the fifteenth century and it is believed to be the second tallest gopuram next to Srirangam Ranganathar temple. The temple has nine gopurams towers. Equally interesting fact is the temple has seven prakaras (prathakshna path), of them the first two were said to be built by the Pandiya kings and the rest by the Cholas and other kings. Other features are two temple tanks called Brahma Theertham and Siva Ganga Theertham and huge thousand pillared hall built by sri Krishnadeva Raya. Pillars in the hall are carefully carved with images of yali, a mythological beast with body of lion and head of an elephant, a symbol of Nayak power. Deepa mantapam, Kalayana mantapam, etc. There are many shrine/sannidhis in the temple and many of them were built in the thirteenth century by the Hoysala kings of Karnataka.
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| Bharani Deepam, Thiruvannamalai, TN.thiruvannamalai.in |
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| Maha deepam atop the hill. thiruvannamalai.in |
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| Thiruvannamalai temple tower. vikatan.com |
The temple comes alive during the annual Karthigai Deepam festival in the Tamil month of Karthikai because Shiva takes the form of Agni and there are temple across Tamil Nadu where Shiva is worshipped in the form of Akash (Chidambaram), Jaal (water; Thiruvanaikaval ), Prithvi (earth; Kanchipuram ) and wind/air (Vayu; Sri Kalahasthi, Andhra ). These five elements are essential for sustenance on this earth.
In this temple 6 kala puja is observed. There are weekly rituals like somavaram and sukravaram, fortnightly rituals like pradosham and monthly festivals like amavasai (new moon day), kruttika, purnima (full moon day) and chaturthi are observed here. A significant ritual called Girivalam is undertaken by lots of devotees. it is about walking barefoot round the Arunachala hill - a distance of 13 km. It is observed with strict restriction on diet, etc., after morning head bath and prayer. Girivalam can be undertaken on any day, but the most auspicious day is Pournami (purnima) - full Moon day. Such a long ritualistic walk chanting Shiva Nama is good for the physical and mental well being of the devotees. They also experience spiritual exhilaration after girivalam.
The annual Karthikai deepam festival (november-December) which is observed on the day of Karthigai Pournami when Karthigai Nakshatram prevails, is a great and important event across Tamil Nadu and it a long drawn festival (10 day event) at Thiruvannamalai attended by more than a million people during that period.
On account of COVID -19 pandemic, in the last two years, the festival was a simple event with restrictions on the crowd movements and the temple rituals. Only limited number of devotees were allowed inside the temple. Devotees were not allowed to witness the lighting of Bharani Deepam in the early morning.
On the Karthikai day the Bharani deepam is lit in the midst of chanting mantras on the temple premises near the sanctum /garbagriha in the early morning around 4 am. Maha deepam - a huge flame is lit on a huge vessel (5'.9'' tall weighing about 250 kg) with a long (about 1000 meters long) wick soaked in ghee (3000 kg) atop the 2666 foot tall Arunachala hill around 6 pm. The cauldron (Koppurai) has three parts Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. The tradition has been that through out Tamil Nadu in the Hindu temples and in the Hindu households oil lamp ( deepam) is lit after the Maha Deepam is lit on the hill at Thiruvannamalai. At homes specifically a series of oil lamps (only earthen lamps) are lit by women folks after prayer to God Shiva and Karthikaya/ Muruga (Subramanya). God Muruga was born on Karthigai Deepam day. Lord Shiva created Lord Murugan from the flames of his third eye to annihilate a demon named Tarakasura. Karthikai Deepam, yet another festival of lights, is symbolic of getting rid of arrogance, ego, jealousy and other unwanted traits that will hinder our progress in life.
This year the festival falls on the 19th November like previous years it is very much restricted and the District Administration has advised the people to avoid visiting the temple for darshan and Girivalam ritual (on the 13 km path) between 17 to 21 November. No special buses are arranged to bring in devotees for the festival with a view to avoiding crowds.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arunachalesvara_Temple
https://thiruvannamalai.in/tiruvannamalai-temple/tiruvannamalai-arunachaleswarar-temple/
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