Eastern Mind
17 January 2011, 09:41 AM
Vannakkam: After Tirupati and Sabrimalai, Palani is the most famed pilgrim town in the south. Tradition involves walking to it. All roads lead to Palani might be apt. As one approaches by car, the roads get congested with pedestrian traffic, especially around festive times like Thai Pusam, Tamil New Year, or Skanda Shasti.
We were fortunate to have a temple employee/trustee be our guide via connections here in Canada. A very nice man, he led us around and took us in via a few shortcuts to witness the evening abhishekham to Palaniandavar. He informed me that the daily average over the year is 100 000 devotees receiving darshan, and swelling to 500 000 on festival days, with the free queue going to 8 hours or so. Imagine standing in line for 8 hours for a 3 second darshan worth every second ... so amazing! After the Ayappan devotees to Sabrimalai, the Murugan devotees of Palani seem almost as crazy, in a good way.
Walking can happen from as far away as Chennai, Kanyakumari, Rameswaram etc. (Look at a google map) Walkers will go for some 16 hours a day barely stopping at all. It may take as long as 10 days, perhaps more. Then at the end you have to climb the steps!
When asked about age of the temple, no one knows. All you get is 'very old'.
Aum Namasivaya
We were fortunate to have a temple employee/trustee be our guide via connections here in Canada. A very nice man, he led us around and took us in via a few shortcuts to witness the evening abhishekham to Palaniandavar. He informed me that the daily average over the year is 100 000 devotees receiving darshan, and swelling to 500 000 on festival days, with the free queue going to 8 hours or so. Imagine standing in line for 8 hours for a 3 second darshan worth every second ... so amazing! After the Ayappan devotees to Sabrimalai, the Murugan devotees of Palani seem almost as crazy, in a good way.
Walking can happen from as far away as Chennai, Kanyakumari, Rameswaram etc. (Look at a google map) Walkers will go for some 16 hours a day barely stopping at all. It may take as long as 10 days, perhaps more. Then at the end you have to climb the steps!
When asked about age of the temple, no one knows. All you get is 'very old'.
Aum Namasivaya