I covered Tiruchendur kovil in the previous post....1 of the 6 arupadai veedu for Murugan.
Now is the turn of Palani....or Palanimalai (malai means mountain/hill in Tamil....this temple is located on one).
The pronounciation is
Pa-zha-ni the "zh" is a special "L" in Tamil/Malayalam. Even Tamil is technically
Ta-mizh.
The lore behind the temple is that Celestial sage Narada once visited and gave a fruit (normally represented as a mango) to Lord Shiva "gnana-pazham" - a fruit upon consumption would give great wisdom. Shiva intended to cut the fruit to give equally to his two sons....but sage Narada said this should not be done, it should be eaten entirely by only one.
So Shiva put a competition to his two sons, whoever could go around the world 3 times first would get it. Muruga in his boyhood pride (his vehicle was the divine peacock which would make the matter quite easy for him) immediately set off to win.
Ganesh (Pillayar as we Tamils call him) on the other hand had no such fancy vehicle (his was a rat)....but immediately judged that his two parents were the equivalent of the world and so he would go around
them instead. Shiva was pleased with this and awarded him the fruit.
When Murugan returned, he got very angry at this turn of events and left the abode of the gods to complete severe penances and meditation at Palani...to learn about himself more, the nature of existence and to leave his boyishness youth and immaturity in the process. He lived as a hermit here and thus the murthi here is one of a boy hermit, no ornaments, simple loincloth, staff and shorn head.
It is one of the very few temples where the murthi faces west rather than east, and the abhishekams for the lord here are well known throughout TN and beyond. The panchamritam prasad is also very famous....for it is said to be a special preparation that Ganapathi made especially for his brother and father.
A temple with great significance for our family, we have been to it many times.
The winch you can take to get to the temple (if you dont want to do the long climb by foot):
At night: