हिंदीOn this day
Standing

Marudhamalai Subramanya Swamy Temple

On a hill of marudham trees at the edge of Coimbatore, Murugan stands as the god of the Kongu country. Devotees call it the seventh abode after the six Padai Veedu, and the cave of the snake-charmer siddha is just below the shrine.

Built: Hill temple on a spur of the Western Ghats at about 500 m above Coimbatore; the Kongu country’s chief Murugan shrineWhere: Tamil Nadu (Coimbatore)Deity: Bhagwan Murugan as Dandayudhapani; Pambatti Siddhar’s shrine11.05° N, 76.85° E
Photo: Kamesh kumar · CC BY 2.0

01The hill of healing trees

Marudhamalai means the hill of the marudham tree, and its slopes are rich in medicinal plants, which the Siddha tradition of medicine prizes. The temple is old; the Kongu Chola rulers are remembered among its patrons, and the Murugan of the hill is praised in Tamil devotional verse. Near the main shrine is the cave of Pambatti Siddhar, the snake-charmer siddha of the eighteen Tamil siddhas, whose songs tell the soul to dance like the snake; devotees believe he still meditates here. Thai Poosam and Kanda Shashti bring lakhs up the hill.

02Steps and the ghat road

A long flight of steps climbs the hill through the forest, and a ghat road with temple buses serves those who cannot walk. From the top the whole of Coimbatore spreads below. The temple is under the Tamil Nadu HR&CE department, which has built a new car-street and a lift in recent years. Elephants from the forest are sometimes seen on the lower slopes.

Visiting

About 15 km west of Coimbatore city. Temple buses run up the ghat road; the steps take about 40 minutes.

Nearby

Coimbatore (Kovai)Standing
Company rule and the war of 1857

Coimbatore (Kovai)

The chief city of the Kongu country, whose Perur temple goes back to the Chola age. Dheeran Chinnamalai planned to storm its Company garrison in 1800, and V. O. Chidambaram was yoked to the oil press in its jail in 1908.

Avinashilingeswarar Temple, AvinashiStanding
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Avinashilingeswarar Temple, Avinashi

Tiruppukkozhiyur, first of the Kongu Tevaram shrines, where Sundarar’s hymn brought a boy back from a crocodile’s mouth.

Tirumuruganatheswarar Temple, TirumuruganpoondiStanding
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Tirumuruganatheswarar Temple, Tirumuruganpoondi

Where Bhagwan Murugan worshipped Shiva after slaying Surapadma, and where Shiva’s ganas, dressed as hunters, robbed Sundarar of the Chera king’s gifts.

KodumanalExcavated
Shungas, Satavahanas, Kharavela and the Sangam Kingdoms

Kodumanal

A Sangam-age industrial town on the Noyyal, near Erode, where beads of beryl, sapphire and carnelian were cut and iron and steel smelted. The Sangam poem Pathitrupathu names it Kodumanam.