Sri Arunachaleswarar Temple Darsanam
Acknowledgments:
1. To Lord Arunachaleswarar/Annamalayar for putting this mad inspiration into me. On a whim, I picked up my ten year old, retireable, handycam one fine day, went to the temple and started clicking!
2. Sri T.V.Chandramouli@SriRamanasramam for the audios/permissions and his insightful editing tips.
3. To Ms.Madhavi ji for some rare clips used by me herein.
Audio Credits:
The audio tracks herein are rendered by:
1. Sri Damodaranaar Oduvaar-from Tiruvaachakam
2. Sri Prabhakaran-verses of Arunachala Stuti Panchakam of Sri Ramana Maharshi and from Umasahasram of Kavyakanta Ganapati Muni.
Special permissions were taken from them through the good offices of Sri T.V.Chandramouli@SriRamanasramam. I am informed that Sri Ramanasramam has rights over the tracks rendered by Sri Prabhakaran.
Audio Tracks:
# 00.48 Arunachala Puranam - Sri Prabhakaran
# 06.36 Tiru Ammanai (Tiruvaachakam) - Sri Damodaranaar Oduvaar
# 23.37 Arivuruthal (Tiruvaachakam) - Sri Damodaranaar Oduvaar
# 31.16 Ananda Paravasam (Tiruvaachakam) - Sri Damodaranaar Oduvaar
# 39.39 Parinaya (Uma Sahasram) - Sri Prabhakaran & Co
# 43.55 Vyomasarira (Uma Sahasram) - Sri Prabhakaran & Co
# 50.35 Arunachala Pancharatnam - Sri Prabhakaran & Co
The famous Arunachala Deepam Festival has begun in Tiruvannamalai (Tamilnadu, India) for the year 2019.
This is a grand 10 day festival, the jewel crown of all festivals that are celebrated every year at the Arunachaleswara Temple. This is a festival to commemorate the apperance of Lord Shiva as Fire (Agni) atop the Arunchala Hill and absorbing Mother Parvati unto Himself, (hence known as 'Ardhanareeswara') at the end of Her penance on earth.
The Lingam at Arunachala gets the name of Agni Lingam from this event.
The Arunachalesara temple is built on a huge 25 acre of land. The temple construction was initiated by the Chola Dynasty in the 9th century. It was subsequently expanded by various other dynastic royal rulers, like Vijayanagara rulers and others over the next 5 centuries or so.
The temple has four huge tower entrances (gopurams) on four sides, the main eastern tower being one of the tallest in the country and built by Sevappa Nayakanar. Apart from these four gopurams there are 7 other imposing smaller ones, all with intricate sculpting on them.
The temple also has various Mandapams (open pillared structures) the largest one being called the 1000 pillared mandapam, getting the name from its 1000 pillars.
From outside to inside, the temple has different concentric corridors called 'Praakaarams', Lord Arunachaleswara Lingam being in the innermost Praakaara.
Various elaborate festivals are celebrated in the temple round the year wherein the decoration of the procession deities and their procession around the temple are on a grandiose scale. During the ten day Deepam festival, the deities are taken around in procession each day on a different mount. The mounts themselves are a feast to behold. These celebrations culminate in the lighting of the Deepam atop the Hill on the tenth day (falling on the full moon day of Tamil Kartigai month-normally November to December).
This is a humble personal video trying to show around the main temple as feasible (with permission), highlighting the various structures and the smaller ancillary temples within. It also has glimpses of a few festival events that are celebrated in the temple.
Om Sri Arunachaleswaraya Namah.
#Arunachaleswarar #AnnamalayarTemple #Tiruvannamalai #SriRamanasramam #SriRamanaMaharshi #Tiruvachakam #ArunachalaStutiPanchakam #Girivalam #RamMohan
