Kumbhabhishekam of Arakantanallur Temple at Tirukkovilur (Associated with Sri Ramana Maharshi)

The temple at Arakantanallur for Lord Atulyanatheswarar is built atop a huge rock. It has a rich historical background.

Believed to be about 1500 years old, the temple was visited by Saint Tirugnana Sambandar fifteen centuries ago. Jnanasambandar had the darshan of Arunachala Hill from the precincts of this temple during his visit and later journeyed to Tiruvannamalai.

In 1896, at the age of 17 Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi had left his home at Madurai. Bhagavan had journeyed to Tiruvannamalai first by train and later by foot. While on foot he came to the temple at Arayani Nallur, not knowing that Saint Tirugnana Sambandar had also set foot in the temple some 15 centuries earlier. Sri Bhagavan had a vision of Arunachala as Light from this temple.

The temple was renovated in 2002-03 with contributions from devotees of Sri Bhagavan and a Kumbhahishekam was also performed in 2003.

Now after 20 years the Kumbhabhisehkam of the temple was again performed on 22.8.2024. Sri Ramanasramam once again contributed generously for the kumbhabhishekam. Anticipating huge crowds on the day of the function itself the President of the Ashram along with a few other devotees visited the temple one day prior to the actual Kumbhabhishekam to have darshan of Lord Atulyanatheswarar and Mother Soundarya Kanakambika.

A special feature was that we could go to the sanctum sanctorum of both shrines touch the deities and film, since the essence of the actual deities' were installed in the 'Yagasala' for the pujas, so that the Lingam and the deities in other shines could undergo running repairs and restoration. This is the purpose of a Kumbhabhishekam-restore the entire temple. We could also climb up inside the main gopuram (6 storeyed) and the roof of the main temple. A brand new 'Dhwaja Stambham' was also installed where the old wooden one had completely decayed.

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