Swamimalai Swaminatha Swamy Temple

Deity

Swaminathan (Murugan), who taught the pranava to his own father

Where

Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu · 10.96N 79.33E

Usual hours

6 am – 12.30 pm, 4 pm – 8.30 pm — hours change with festivals and the season; check before travelling. Were these right when you went?

Grahas

Sevvai

Visited for

The fourth house, sixty steps for the sixty Tamil years. Vaikasi Visakam is its day; visited for learning, for clarity of speech and on the Navagraha circuit of the delta.

The sthala purana has it that Brahma was stopped by the boy Murugan and asked the meaning of the pranava, Om. Brahma could not answer, and Murugan is said to have shut him up and taken over his work for a time.

Sivan came to release Brahma, and asked the boy whether he himself knew the meaning. Murugan is said to have answered that he would teach it, but only as a teacher is taught — from a seat above. Sivan sat below and listened, and Murugan became Swaminathan, the teacher of his own father. He is still called Thagappan Swami here for it.

Swamimalai is identified with Thiruveragam, one of the six places in Nakkeerar’s Thirumurugatrupadai.

The town around the temple has been the centre of bronze icon casting in the delta for generations, and the sthapathis of Swamimalai supply temples across the country. That is a documented craft tradition, separate from the temple but bound up with it.

The shrine stands on a mound reached by sixty steps, one for each year of the Tamil sixty-year cycle, and each step carries the name of its year.

Murugan is shown here as a teacher rather than as a warrior, and the arrangement of the hill shrine above and the Sivan shrine below repeats the story of who sat where.

Sundareswarar and Meenakshi have their shrines at the foot of the mound, and the temple tank is beside them.

Vaikasi Visakam is the day here. Thai Poosam, Skanda Sashti and the monthly Krithikai are the others.

Because Swamimalai is inside the Navagraha circuit of the delta, most of the year’s traffic is families passing through between Kumbakonam and the nine temples.

Also called

Thiruveragam, Swaminathaswamy Temple, the fourth padai veedu

Reaching it

Swamimalai is about 5 km west of Kumbakonam, on the road towards Thiruvaiyaru. Kumbakonam is the nearest railway station.

• Thiruvalanchuzhi Kapardeeswarar Temple 1.1 km · Ganapathi
• Patteeswaram Durgai Amman Temple 2.2 km · Sakta (Amman)
• Airavatesvara Temple, Darasuram 3.5 km · Saiva
• Adi Kumbeswarar Temple 5.5 km · Saiva
• Sarangapani Temple, Kumbakonam 5.5 km · Vaishnava
• Papanasanathar Temple, Papanasam 7.4 km · Saiva

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?
• A photograph of the gopuram, the tank, or the notice board

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