Murugan Temple Thirupparankundram
Thiruparankundram
cave temple which is dedicated to the Lord Subramaniya, is situated at 8km
south of Madurai.
This is one of the six abodes of the Lord. The glory of this temple had been praised in the literary works of
Sangam poet Nakkirar in his poem, Thirumurugatruppadai, which means that the
temple in some form was in existence during the Third Sangam period. ..
Presiding deities of the temple are Lord Muruga and his consort Devasena or
Devayani. Other deities - Shiva, Vishnu, Durga and Ganapathy - are represented
as well.
Entrance
in the ancient cave temple leads through a row of massive square pillars
ornamented with lotus-shaped medallions.
Inside the cave temple one can see an ancient painting of Nataraja. The temple
contains also 41 inscriptions revealing the early history of the temple. Before
the ancient rock-cut temple there is built front part - mugha mandapam.
In the south-eastern part of Kambaththadi mandapam there exists a 30 m long
tunnel. There have been a number of later additions during the Pandya reign in
8th Century and later during the Nayak period (16th to 18th
Century).
According
to the legend, this is the place where, after slaying Surapadma, Lord Muruga
takes the hand of Devasena, daughter of Indra in marriage.
In
the picture above, one can see a Durgah on top of the hill and a small stream
of water as there were good rains in the night before our visit to the temple
on June 1st.
A few more pictures:
PS: This is something I should have added in the main text but as an after thought, I am describing the incident here.:
When we visited the temple after a long drive from Chennai on the way to Madurai to attend a wedding, I was feeling completely worn out. To have a darshan, one has to climb a number of steps and some of them had no handrails on the side. My son, his wife and kids chose to take the longer free darshan queue, while my wife nd I took the shorter paid route. This route also has similar steps to climb. I used my wife's shoulder as support on one side and the handrails on the other side. When we came to the part which had no handrails, I found the steps also a bit steep for me and I was struggling to climb up. As if from nowhere, a dark skinned lady appeared (may be in the age group 30s.) with three lines of Vibhuti on her forehead.
Without uttering a word, she gave me support by holding my hand and helped me to climb up. Not a word was spoken. At the end of the flight of steps, she let go of my hand and walked into the crowd ahead. All I could do was to do a "Namaste" with folded hands. I could not see her anywhere in the queue or later.
Kanakasabapathi.