Thiruvannamalai
is an ancient temple town in TamilNadu with a unique historical back ground. It
is one of the holy town that finds a place in the poems written by reputed
Tamil saivaite poets.(padal petra sthalam). Several important facts are found
in the stone inscriptions in the walls of temple prakarams. Also many details
were available through inscriptions found on the copper plates.
The four great Tamil saivaite poets Sambandar, Sundarar, Appar and Manickavasagar
have written about the history of Thiruvannamalai in their literary work that
stands unparalleled. They are Thevaram and Thiruvasagam. Arunagirinathat has
also written beautifully about the history of Thriuvannamalai and this Lord
Arunachalaeswarar temple. The ancient kings starting from the Chola Dynasty
period read from the Tamil works and started reposing more faith on Lord
Arunachalaeswar. They started contributing their share by constructing many
Gopuram, mandapams, and shrines. Making steady additions to the temple
structure over the last one thousand years. During the reign of King
Krishnadevarayar of Vijayanagaram, Lord Arunachalaeswar temple saw many
buildings and structures in the form of gopurams and mandapams came to be
built. Since King Krishnadevarayar was a staunch devotee of Lord Shiva. Most
important among them is the Rajagopuram that is 217 feet high. This is believed
to be the second highest Gopuram in the India. According to the history of
Thiruvannamalai, this temple is the largest temple in India built exclusively
for Shiva and Parvathi. Kings like Ballala who was another Shiva devotee
contributed many structures to this temple. History says that Shiva himself
pleased with this king’s kindness and generosity came forward to perform the
kings final rites since this king was childless. Another history about
Thiruvannamalai on how Lord Shiva took the form of fire is explained as, when
once Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu had a quarrel, Shiva in order to sort out this
problem took the form of fire and challenged them to find his crown and feet.
Both of them failed and Brahma in the process of finding out tells a lie and
Shiva gets annoyed with Brahma and curses that he should not have place of
worship. Hence it is believed that there is no temple for Brahma any where in
India. Thus at Thiruvannamalai Lord Shiva came to be worshipped by devotees in
the form of fire. And it is one of the pancha bootha sthalas in Tamilnadu.






