Palani Dhandayuthapani Swamy Temple

Deity

Dhandayuthapani (Murugan) as the renunciate on the hill

Where

Dindigul, Tamil Nadu · 10.45N 77.52E

Usual hours

4 am – 12.30 pm, 4 pm – 9.30 pm — hours change with festivals and the season; check before travelling. Were these right when you went?

Grahas

Sevvai Ketu

Visited for

The third of the six houses and the great vow temple: kavadi, padayatra and the panchamirtham. Thaipusam and Panguni Uthiram are its festivals; visited for health, for a vow kept and for Sevvai.

The sthala purana has it that Narada brought a fruit of knowledge to Kailasam, and that Sivan set a race for it: whoever went round the world first would have it. Murugan set off on his peacock; Vinayagar walked round his parents and said that they were the world, and the fruit was given to him.

Murugan is said to have left in anger, shed everything he had, and stood on this hill as a renunciate with a staff and a loincloth — Dhandayuthapani, the one whose weapon is a staff. When his parents came to bring him back, Sivan is said to have told him pazham nee, you are yourself the fruit, and the hill took the name from those words.

The image in the sanctum is held by tradition to have been made by the siddhar Bhogar out of nine poisons compounded together. That is why the panchamirtham and the ash from its abhishekam are asked for, and why the moolavar is not stone-polished in the ordinary way.

Nakkeerar’s Thirumurugatrupadai names Thiruavinankudi among the six, and Thiruavinankudi is the temple at the foot of the Palani hill. The hill shrine above it and the temple below are worshipped together.

Palani is administered as one of the largest temple establishments in Tamil Nadu, and the panchamirtham made there is sold under the temple’s own name.

The shrine is on top of a rocky hill reached by a long flight of steps, a winch railway and a rope car. Most people walk up and ride down, or the other way about.

Idumban has a shrine part of the way up, and kavadi bearers stop there. At the foot are the Thiruavinankudi temple and the tank.

The sanctum is small and the queue passes it quickly. Bhogar’s shrine is within the hill temple. Tonsure is common here, and the halls for it are beside the steps.

Thaipusam is the great festival. Walkers set out days ahead from Coimbatore, Erode, Dindigul and further, carrying kavadi along the roads, and the town is given over to them.

Panguni Uthiram, Vaikasi Visakam, Skanda Sashti and the monthly Krithikai are the other heavy days. Abhishekam to the moolavar with panchamirtham is performed daily and is the observance most families book.

Also called

Pazhani, Thiruavinankudi, the third padai veedu

Reaching it

Palani is about 60 km west of Dindigul and roughly 100 km from Coimbatore. It has its own railway station, and the hill is at the edge of the town.

• Kuchanur Sanieswarar Temple 60.7 km · Saiva
• Magudeswarar Temple, Kodumudi 80.9 km · Saiva
• Kallazhagar Temple, Alagar Koil 86 km · Vaishnava
• Avinashi Lingeswarar Temple 86.7 km · Saiva
• Pazhamudircholai Murugan Temple 86.9 km · Murugan
• Thirupparamkunram Subramanya Swamy Temple 87.4 km · Murugan

Been to this temple? The things that change — whether the hours on this page were right, whether the sannidhi was open, how long the queue was on a Saturday — are exactly what no printed source keeps current, and what the next person travelling here needs.

• Were the hours right when you went?
• Is anything on this page wrong or out of date?
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