Annamalaiyar Temple Tiruvannamalai Indian Panorama

Annamalaiyar Temple

Arunachaleswar temple, this important pilgrimage place represents one of the five cosmic elements, in this case fire, and sprawling across 10 hectares in Tiruvannamalai. This temple is considered to be very auspicious by Saivites, as a place must to be visited once in their life time.

Annamalaiyar Temple - Thiruvannamalai - Tamil Nadu

Lord Shiva is represented as a column of fire in this temple called as Agni Lingam. Mythologically, when there was a clash between Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu about their supremacy, they surrendered to Lord Shiva. He challenged them to find his head or his feet as a test and they both accepted that whoever was successful would be deemed superior.

Brahma moved upward and Vishnu went downwards. After a long time, Vishnu could not find the feet of Shiva and gave up, coming back and accepting that he was not superior. But Brahma reappeared with a flower, stating that he had taken it from the crown of Lord Shiva.