Arulmigu Arunachaleswarar Temple | Pancha Bhoota Sthalam

The renowned Arunachaleswarar temple is the abode to lord Shiva, situated at the base of Annamalai slopes. Here, lord Shiva is worshipped as the Fire element of nature. The divinity of this temple is worshiped in the seventh century Tamil Saiva authoritative work, the Tevaram, composed by Tamil holy artists referred to as the nayanars and named Paadal Petra Sthalam. The ninth century Saiva holy saint Manikkavasagar created the Thiruvempavai here. The sanctuary complex spreads 10 hectares, one of the biggest in India. It houses four door towers known as gopurams. The tallest is the eastern tower, with 11 stories and a statue of 217 feet. The temple has various altars, with those of Annamalaiyar and Unnamulai Amman being the most conspicuous. The temple complex houses numerous corridors, the most remarkable is the thousand-pillared lobby worked amid the Vijayanagar period. Legend goes in a way that the creator lord Brahma and protector lord Vishnu entered into a controversy among themselves so as to ascertain who was the greatest. Lord Shiva was asked to be the judge. Lord Shiva told them that whoever was able to see his crown as well as his feet at the same time would be termed as the greatest. Then lord Shiva transformed himself into a Jothi (a streak of fire) touching heaven and earth. Vishnu took the avatar of varaha (wild boar) and dug deep into the earth to find Shiva's feet but couldn’t do so. Brahma disguised as a swan and flew to see the crown of the lord. Unable to witness it, Brahma saw a thazhambu flower which had decked Shiva's crown falling down. He asked the flower for the distance of Shiva's crown whereby the flower replied that it had been falling for forty thousand years. Brahma wanted the flower to act as a false witness. The thazhambu flower witnessed that Brahma had seen the crown. Shiva was not happy at this deception and cursed that Bramha should have any temple on earth and that the thazhambu flower should not be a holy flower to lord Shiva. The place where Lord Shiva stood as a column of fire to eliminate the ego is deemed this Tiruvannamalai. The Annamalai hill is the Agni (fire) during Krita Yuga, is Manikkam (Emerald) during Treta Yuga, is pon (Gold) during Dwapara Yuga and rock during Kaliyuga as per the legends. The outermost layout has a thousand pillared hall, Shiva Ganga tank and is pierced on four sides with colossal pagodas. The fourth layout includes Brahma Theertham. The third one which dates back to the 12th century AD has several shrines. There is an air of deep mysticism around the temple which attracted lot of saints. The well known among them is the spiritual saint Sri Ramana Maharishi. All of the four Saivite saints Appar, Sundararar, Sambandar and Manikkavasagar have sung the glory of this temple. It was at this temple that Arunagirinathar began composing his immortal work Thiruppugazh.