Murugan Temple Thirupparankundram
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.
2 comments:
This comment is received by email from my classmate and friend Ramakrishnan, who has lived in his early years in Sannadhi Street in front of the main entrance.
If one goes round (giri valam) the hillock he/she can come across
1.a nice teppam (water tank) abutting a smooth rock slope on the eastern side,
2.a cave temple on the southern side which is claimed as the original temple (Thenpuram kundram) and
3.a (Pandava)cave (built by Jains) with five stone beds and an ante room with a stone bed (may be for Draupathy !) at a height of about 100 ft. This is under the control of the Archeological Dept.
At the top of the hillock there is another temple called "Kasi Viswanathar" temple with a pushkarani (rain water harvesting).
Regards.
M V Ramakrishnan
"Saravana Poigai" is the name of the "Teppam".
Additional info provided by M V Ramakrishnan
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