The temple, in modern times, is maintained and administered by the Hindu Religious and Endowment Board of the Government of Tamil Nadu. The temple was greatly damaged during the Anglo-French war between Hyder Ali and British in 1740. The temple is believed to be in existence from the Sangam period from 2nd century BC and was believed to have been modified by Parantaka Chola I. The annual Vaikasi Visagam festival is attended by thousands of devotees from far and near.Īs per Hindu legend, Muruga, the son of Shiva, extolled the meaning of the Pranava Mantra (Hindi: ॐ AUM) to his father at this place and hence attained the name Swaminathaswamy. to 9 p.m., and three yearly festivals on its calendar. The temple has six daily rituals at various times from 5:30 a.m.

The temple has three gopuram (gateway towers), three precincts and sixty steps and each one is named after the sixty Tamil years. The shrine of the presiding deity, Swaminathaswamy is located atop a 60 ft (18 m) hillock and the shrine of his mother Meenakshi (Parvathi) and father Shiva (Sundareswarar) is located downhill. The temple is one of the six holy shrines of Murugan called Arupadaiveedu. Swamimalai Swaminathaswamy Temple is a Hindu temple located in Swamimalai dedicated Murugan 5 km from Kumbakonam on the banks of a tributary of river Cauvery, 250 km from Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, India. The temple commemorates the incident where Muruga explained the essence of the pranava mantra “Om” to his father Shiva. Located at 5 km from Kumbakonam, the temple is built on an artificial hill. Here, the main deity is made out of an amalgam of nine minerals popularly called Navabashanam and was established by Saint Bhogar. This is the place where Murugan resided after his feud with his family over a divine fruit. There is also a Murugan temple on the Palani hill top where ‘Dhandayuthapani’ is the main deity, in a meditating state, carrying a staff (‘danda’) as weapon (‘ayutha’) in his hands (‘pani’). Located in Dindigul District, on the Palani hill bottom ( Malai Adivaram ) called ‘Thiruaavinankudi’, where the deity is known as ‘Kuzhanthai Velayuthaswami’ and was worshipped by Goddess Lakshmi (‘Thiru’ in Tamil), the sacred cow Kamadhenu (‘Aa’ in Tamil), the sun god Surya (‘Inan’ in both Tamil & Sanskrit), the earth goddess (‘ku’ in Tamil), and the fire god Agni (‘Di’ in Tamil), and has idols of all of them.

Murugan tamil rock