MURUGAN TEMPLE

OF NORTH AMERICA
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Five Siva Temples

(Pancha Bhoota Stalams)
Dedicated to the Five Elements —
Earth, Wind, Fire, Space, and Water
Reprinted from the Murugan Temple Newsletter
Articles by Dr. Manickam Krishnamurthy
Note: TempleNet’s Series on The Pancha Bhoota Stalams was used as a reference. Pictures are
provided with permission of Himalayan Academy Press.
© 2006, 2007, Murugan Temple of North America
Permission to duplicate text is granted so long as this URL, the author’s name, and copyright notice are
retained. Please contact Himalayan Academy Press for permission to reproduce photos contained herein.

The Murugan Temple of North America is a Traditional Saivite Hindu Temple. It has a floor area
of 7000 square feet, with main Sannidhi for Lord Murugan (Lord Karthik) and four smaller Sannidhis
for God Vinayaka (Lord Ganesha), God Siva, Goddess Meenakshi and God Palani Andavar. We
also have an auditorium that is available for the use by the community. Please see our website:
http://www.murugantemple.org/ for more detail on the Temple .
If you have comments or questions, please contact mtnaeditor@murugantemple.org
 Kacnchipurum with permission from Himalayan Academy Press

KANCHIPURUM (EARTH) AND SREE Lord Sivan where the God in the sanctum is
KALATTHI (WIND) specifically made of sand! That is in Kanchipurum.
Kanchipurum or affectionately called Kanchi is near
By Dr. Manickam Krishnamurthy
Chennai. It is an ancient city. About two thousand
From January-February 2007 Issue
years ago a chieftain named Thondaimaan
Earlier we reflected about the temples devoted to
Ilanthiraiyan, affiliated to Chola kings established a
Lord Sivan in the manifestation of fire, space and
kingdom centered on this town. Since then this area is
water. Here the remaining two temples are considered.
called Thondai nadu. Later around 6th century A.D.
Lord Sivan is usually manifested in the form of
another family called Pallavas ruled from this town.
Lingam, which may be made of granite [and either man-
During the early part of their reign they were followers
made or natural] in all temples. But in some temples in
of Janinism. So Sanskrit was their ruling language.
South India the ant-hill or termite mound called puttru
There is saying nagareshu Kanchi, (meaning if you
in Tamil is worshiped as the embodiment of Lord
want to see a city, you should see Kanchi). Thus the
Sivan as in Thiruvottriyoor (near Chennai),
place has been famous. There are several temples in
Thiruvaroor, and Thirupungoor. Even though this
this city. But the most important and biggest of them
ant-hill is made of earth, there is one temple devoted to
all is the Ekambareshwarer Temple.

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Puranas say that once Mother Umai in playful
romantic mood came behind Lord Sivan and closed
His eyes. But His eyes were the sun and the moon!
So the whole world went dark and all life was in chaos!
So Sivan got annoyed at Devi for disturbing the
living beings and punished Her by sending to earth to
do penance. She came to the area currently called
Kanchi, made a Lingam using the sand at the kambai
river bank and began worshiping the Lord. To show
the depth of Her devotion to the devas, asuras and
others Sivan made the river to flood and crest
threatening the lingam. Without a second thought,
Devi hugged the lingam to protect it from the flood.
Immediately God presented Himself and appreciated
Her devotion and love. As a present, He offered half
of Himself to Her. Hence, you seldom see Sivan by
Himself. In all the forms, Devi, His consort occupies
His left side. Sometimes this incident is depicted by
artists making in the same statue left half Devi and the
right half Sivan. This form is called Umai-Oru-Pagan
or Arthanareeswarar. Other times with a consort in
the left side as a complete female and the right side a
complete male figure either standing as in
Chadrasekarar or sitting as in Somaskandar,
Kalyanasundareswarar and Pradoshamurthy etc.
Anyway, as a result of this incident, apparently there
is a mark of squishing by the cleavage of the Devi and
mark of Her bangles in the lingam! Thus the name of
the sand lingam is known as Thashuvakkuzhindha
nathar (meaning One who melted-on-hugging!) The
Devi in Kanchi is called Yelawarkuzhali (meaning one
with beautiful hair that smells like yelakkai!)
Historically, Nambiaroorar (commonly known as
Sundaramoorthy nayanar) got vision in one eye back
here. We will learn about this at a later time.
Aside from the puranic story, this temple was also
famous for the temple tree, which is a mango tree.
There was an ancient huge mango tree at this temple
spread like an old oak tree. People used to say it born
fruits that tasted different depending upon the
direction of the branches! Anyway unfortunately for
those who have not seen it, the tree died couple of
years ago. I read from the news articles that some one
is trying to revive the tree by cloning it or some such
thing. I have not been back since that time. In Sanskrit,
ekam means one and amrum means mango. Thus this
tree gave a name for the Lord: Ekambareswarar.
Aside from this 24 acre spread temple, Kanchi is also
famous for a Devi temple dedicated to Kamatchi
Amman; a Murugan Temple known as Kumarakkotum
where the Tamil version of Kantha Puranam debuted;
and architecturally oldest brick and mortar Sivan
temple known as Kailasanathar temple.
Switching briefly to the Sivan temple dedicated to
the wind form, this temple is located in a town called
Kalahasthi. It is currently in the State of Andhra
Pradesh. I had been to this temple only once nearly
thirty years ago! You saw how the ancient wise people
illustrated fire, water, space, and earth forms of Sivan.
This temple is another amazing feat! Here also the
sanctum sanctorum, as in any other temple, has just
one entrance with no windows. Yet the flame of one oil
wick lamp in front of the Siva lingam always flickers
while other lamp flames alongside burn calmly
indicating the disturbance caused by a draft directed
at that one flame! This is the manifestation we are to
infer! According to Puranas (may also be historically)
this is another old temple. This is where Kannappar
worshiped Lord Sivan. There are several Thevaram
devoted to this temple. An ancient Tamil poet known
as Nakkeerar wrote a book called Kayily pathee
Kalaththi pathee. about this temple. When Saint
Thirugnanasambandhar visited this temple he felt
Kannappar standing at the feet of Lord Sivan!
About the devotion Kannappar everyone including
Adhi Sankarar have written! The importance of this
temple need not be exaggerated! Thus we conclude
the tour of the five temple devoted to Lord Sivan in
the form the Elements! If time permits we will talk
about the five Sabais devoted to Lord Kootharasar
(known as Nataraja by you!) and eight temples
devoted to eight heroic deeds of Lord Sivan!
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 THIRUVANAIKKAVAL(WATER) process, both the elephant and the spider died. Lord

by Dr. Manickam Krishnamurthy Sivan gave salvation to both these devotees! The

From January-February 2005 Issue Lord made the spider to be born as a chola king. This

Earlier this year, Dr. Krishnamurthy beautifully king had reddish eyes like a spider. Hence he was

portrayed two of the five great Siva temples named Kopperunchenkannan. He ruled the kingdom

dedicated to the five elements (Pancha Bhoota very honorably and built about seventy temples to

Stalams): Tiruvannamalai (Fire) in the March-April Lord Sivan. Many of these temples are said to have

issue, Chidambaram (Space) in the May-June issue. many steps and narrow entrances that are hard for the

Here, Dr. Krishnamurthy writes about elephants to enter! This king is among the lists of

Thiruvanaikkaval, the Siva temple dedicated to the sixty-three saints and he is said to have lived about

element of Water. second century A.D.

In this issue let us meditate on the temple devoted Every ancient temple in Tamil Nadu is associated

several centuries go by the genius of devotees to with a tree called a temple tree. The tree here is called

manifest Lord Sivan in the form of water. This sacred naaval [it is related to the plum here]

place is called Thiruvannakkaval. It is situated in the It is also called jambu in Sanskrit. The woods that

ancient chola kingdom, lands surrounded by the abounded here were mainly of this kind. There is one

majestic and sacred river Kaveri and its branch. It is tree still behind the sanctum here. As usual there is a

currently a suburb of Thiruchchirappalli, a major train story about this! Once there was a saint named

junction in south India. It is also about 1.6 km from Jambumadhavan, who offered a fruit of this tree to

Thiruvarangam, a most sacred place for Vaishnavites. Lord Sivan. When the Lord spit the pit, the saint

Lord Sivan at this temple is known as swallowed the pit so as no one should step on it [it is

"Neerththiralnathar" in Tamil and "Jalagandeeswarar" desecration to step on anything that adorned or

in Sanskrit. The goddess is known as "Akilandeswari" touched by the Lord!] But his pit sprouted in the

in Sanskrit. stomach! On seeing his concern about the sprout,

Though it is not the intent here to rehash mythology Lord told him to Go and stay in this forest where the

about this place, the name of this place in Tamil means Goddess will come to worship me. I will come to see

simply a place watched over by an elephant. In the Her in form of water when you will also get your

sanctum here, there is natural eternal spring even in a salvation! The saint followed the advice and thus the

dry season. Once upon a time, around this spring tree come to be growing around the Lord! Lord Sivan

there were woods. A spider made a web canopy to here is also known as Jambukeswarar.

protect the Lord from falling leaves. An elephant that In order for the devotees to be able to perform pujai

came to worship the Lord saw this web and thought it such as abishekam, someone installed a Sivalingam in

is desecrating the place and destroyed it. Next day the sanctum. Many people who go there to worship

the spider made a new web and the elephant again may look at the temple never realizing that they are

destroyed it! This incident was repeated a few more standing in the Water, which is Lord Sivan! Another

times when the spider decided to punish the culprit. interesting thing about this temple is the sanctum of

When the elephant came to destroy, the spider went the Goddess. This temple is spread more than 18

into the trunk and bit the elephant. Unable to bear the acres of land and consists of five praharams [walled

pain the elephant rolled over in the ground and hit the compounds]. The Goddess temple is in the fourth

trunk on the ground to kill the biting insect! In the praharam. She is supposed to be very powerful and
unforgiving. It seems people would leave the temple

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 Tiruvanamalai Temple Pool with permission of Himalayan Academy Press
before dark for fear of Her. An ancient lore here is
when Sankara (the original) came to this temple, he
was told of Her fury. So he prayed and made the
power of Goddess to be contained in two earrings!
Those earrings She is wearing to this day. But
because the fury was contained in them, people can
worship Her without any fear. More people go this
temple to worship Her than to see the Sivan!
But don't miss going to this temple at noon time. As
you know tradition and scriptures require that pujais
be performed to Lord Sivan six times a day. The
noon time pujai at this temple is supposed to be
performed by the Goddess! She also worships a
Cow at this time. So the temple employees bring a
cow to the sanctum for the noon time pujai. The priest
dressed up as Devi in saree and wearing a tiara (called
greedam), arrives from the temple of the Goddess with
musical accompaniment at the sanctum and performs
the pujai! It is sight to see for in no other temple such a
pujai is done!
May God Annamalaiyar (also know as
Neerththiralnathar and many other Names)
accompanied with Unnamulaiammai bless you all!
TIRUVANNAMALAI (FIRE)
by Dr. Manickam Krishnamurthy
From the March-April 2004 issue
This is the first in a series of articles written by
Murugan Temple devotees about Temples they grew
up with. Building on our yearly celebration of the
Kandasami Temple of Nallur, this series aims bring to
life the experience of great temples of South India
and Sri Lanka for the next generation. This article by
Thiru Manickam Krishnamurthy describes
Thiruvannamalai, one of the most revered Saivite
Temples in India.
In Tamil, the word Thiruvannamalai is made up of
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three words: thiru, Anna, malai. Thiru means beautiful
or respectful. Anna means unreachable or
unattainable. Malai means mountain. The mountain
that you see in the picture above is called Annamalai.
Ancient Tamil people worshipped god in the form of
nature, so it is not surprising that they worshipped this
mountain itself as the embodiment of Lord Sivan. In
addition to the mountain there is also a temple at the
foothills. The presiding god is named Annamalaiar.
His consort is Woonnamulaiar, which means in Tamil
"the lady whose breasts have never been suckled"! I am
neither qualified nor capable of explaining, how the
mother of all beings could be imagined to have breasts
that were never suckled, but the beauty of these names
lies in (maybe coincidentally) the choice of the first
letters of Lord Sivan and Woomai. If you combine 'A'
with 'Woo' and the first letter of the mountain 'M' one
gets the Most Sacred of all Mantras: AUM!
As mentioned earlier the mountain itself has been
worshipped for heaven knows how long! In the 6th
century AD, when St. Thirugnansambandhar was
visiting Thirukkoilur about 20 miles to the south, his
followers standing at the shores of Thenpennai River
showed him the Annamalai Mountain. He sang ten
poems in praise of Annamalaiar. He also sang another
ten poems when he visited the site. It is not known how
much of the temple existed at that time, but these
poems, along with the thirty poems written by St.
Thirunavukkarasar, constitutes one of the earliest
references to it in the literature. Epigraphically, the
earliest reference is to the King Rajendran (ca 1053
AD). Since this epigraph occurs in the outside walls
of sanctum sanctorum, one can surmise that the stone
temple was built just about this time. Before that time
it must have existed as either a brick or wood
construction like so many old temples. The temple in
the current form must have been built in several stages
with latest construction ending in fifteenth century.
The walkway around the sanctum is called the
praharam. Praharams are usually square in shape.
Generally surrounding the praharam there is a wall, like
in a fortress. The sanctum is a room with just one
entrance and no windows. The main entry to the third
praharam is called the kiligopuram. The main entry in
the fourth praharam is a tall tower. You can see it
facing the east in the middle of the picture. This is
called Vallala maharaja gopuram; this is an important
landmark! St. Arunagiri was said to have fallen from
the top of this tower when Lord Murugan saved him
and mentored him. Surrounding the fifth praharam is a
tall fortress wall and five entries. The main entry is a
220 feet tall tower. In this fifth praharam there is hall
with 'a thousand- pillars'. Most of these temples
served the public in many ways. In the past (even
during British rule) this temple served as a fortress. In
some temples the thousand-pillar hall served as a
hospital or school. Opposite to this hall is a small hall
with 16 pillars. In one of these pillars Lord Murugan
appeared at the request of St. Arunagiri. The whole
area of the temple is about 24 acres, and as you might
have noticed there are nine towers in all!
Once upon a time Brahma and Vishnu were
contending that each of them to be superior and
important. To adjudicate this dispute they went to
Lord Sivan. He offered a race whereby they will
choose to see the Tip of His head or Toe. He took
the form of fire. Brahma went to see the tip of the
head. Vishnu went to see the toe. After some time
Vishnu returned very tired and said that he could not
see the Toe however long he dug! But Brahma saw a
falling flower petal from the head, and requested the
petal to bear false witness for him. When he came back
with the lie, Lord Sivan punished him saying that he
shall not have any temple in the world! Also he
punished the flower for bearing false witness by
banishing from any sacred use! Legend has it that
fire form of Lord Sivan is the Annamalai! During
the Tamil month of Karthigai (during Oct-Nov)
on the full moon day a light is lit on the peak of this
mountain to commemorate this. This is the only
mountain where such a light is lit. Moreover, Lord
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 Photo of Chidambaram with permission from Himalayan Academy Press
Sivan is worshipped in the form of five elements:
earth, wind, water, fire and space.
Thiruvannamalai represents the fire form of the
Lord. There is another unique festival celebrated
at this temple on the second day of the Tamil
month Thai (Jan 14 or 15th). It is a 'lover's
quarrel' between Lord Sivan and Goddess
Woonnamulai, and St. Sundarar mediates this
quarrel the next day. It is fun to watch this festival!
The Karthigai festival is another major festival,
celebrated over ten days with a country fair in the
town. Every day Utsava Moorthys were taken in
procession in the daytime and in the nighttime.
CHIDAMBARAM (SPACE)
by Dr. Manickam Krishnamurthy
From the May-June 2004 issue
The temple occupies about forty acres of land in the
center of the eponymous town. Ancient temples are
constructed of wood like a shelter on a stone base,
and the shrine in this temple is typical of such an
architecture. Such a building is called 'ambalam'.
Since this ambalam is also covered in gold, it is called
'Ponnambalam'. While there is no way to ascertain the
age of this temple, from inscriptions in stone one can
surmise the gopurams were constructed beginning
about the ninth century. But all four saints have
written poems describing this temple and the cosmic
Dance of Sivan here.
This temple represents the element 'space' or
'nothingness'. In the Ponnambalam there is a room, and
at the entry to this room hangs a string of gold-plated
leaves. These leaves are covered with a cloth screen.
At the request of devotees, the priest opens the
screen briefly and offers prayer with a lamp. When one
onlooker asks another 'what did you see' the common
7
reply is 'oh! It is nothing!' Of course! That is precisely
what is depicted here-'NOTHING'. This is
famously called a secret.
In Tamilnadu, there are five places that are important
for Kooththar (Nataraja). This temple has the golden
ambalam (sabai). The shingles of this stage are gold
plated. This gold plating took place since tenth
century onwards by various kings. The Dance here is
called 'Anandha (joyous) Thandavam" (dance). Lord
Sivan appears in the well known dancing pose at the
request of two saints - Pathanjali and Vyagrapathar
(one with the feet of tiger). This place was known as
'Thillai' for a kind of shrub that used to grow wild in
the area.
The building of the gopurams (entry ways) began in
the ninth century. They are about 140 feet tall, and
the oldest is the east tower and the youngest the north
tower. In the first level of the east tower, the 108
poses of Bharatham, the classical dance, are depicted
in stone with a Sanskrit description inscribed below.
There are also statues of many beautiful poses of
Sivan and many saints displayed in these towers. In
addition to the Ponnambalam, there are four other
ambalams here. One called 'niruthya sabai' is sculpted
in the form of a chariot with stone wheels. There is
also a sanctum with a Lingam. The Lord name there is
Thirumoolanathar.
It is difficult to narrate everything about this temple in
such a short space. This temple is unique in many
ways! Across from the Ponnambalam, there is a shrine
for Perumal (Vishnu) in the 'Lying Pose' apparently
installed in the eighth century. Another uniqueness of
this temple is it is owned and maintained by the 'families
of Dikshidhars'. The members of these families
numbered three thousand! Saint Nambiaroorar
[Sundaramoorthy Nayanar] refers to all of them to be
'army of Sivan' and worships them as such. Some time
in the tenth century the kings entrusted the whole
temple to them. Even today, when government
controls most all other temples, these families own this
temple!
Many saints have written about this temple.
Nandhanar and Manickkavachagar merged with God
here. One of the teachers of the Saiva Siddhantha
School, Umapathy Sivachariar,lived and worshiped
here. Thirumaligaiththevar wrote the Thiruvisaippa
about the car festival. Sekkizar's Periapuranam
debuted here. Two major festivals are observed in this
temple, one during the month of July-August and
another during December-January. Only on these
occasions is the Natarajar taken out in procession.
Each of these festivals are ten days long, and tens of
thousands throng the temple for these occasions.
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