One of the six abodes of Lord Muruga

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 8^th Century and later during the Nayak period (16^th to 18^th 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 1^st.

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.