Pugali Malai, Balasubramaniswamy Temple, Karur(Arunattan Mala)

The beautiful & very old(2500 years) hill temple for lord muruga is here.
It is in Kaveri river bank.

Velayuthampalayam is a town located in Karur District in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It comes under the jurisdiction of Punjai Pugalur Town Panchayat. This town is situated on the footsteps of Arunattan Malai, which houses Lord Muruga. The river Cauvery is 3 kilometers away from the town.It is very close to TNPL Pugalur.

This place is called Velayudhampalayam because of this temple. Lord Muruga has a weapon in his hand always which is called a Vel. Ayudham means weapon. So that is Velayudhampalayam. This place is also called Arnattan Malai, which mean it’s a natural hillock and not man made. This is also manipulated as Arunattan Malai which means the hillock which belongs to the 6 regions i.e this was centrally located to 6 regions. Other names for the place are Pugazhimalai, Pugazhiyur and Pugazhur.

I enquired the priest here about the Tamil Brahmi Script and he said it is locked up and the key is with the security guy who would be at the base of the hillock. Then he also said that the key might be with his bro who was the priest at the nearbyMariamman temple. No other go, I went down to find this security guy who was missing. So I went to the Mariamman Templewhere the priest helped me out and I was back at the hillock. At this point my sweet friend who I failed to wake up in the morning called me up to say he was down with fever. Poor soul!!!

The gate to go to the caves is located near the Idumban Shrine. I was accompanied by the priest of Balasubramaniar Temple and we were there in the pathway that leads to the caves.

There are actually 2 caves and 4 gates. Heavy security to preserve our heritage!!! Passing through the first 2 gates took me to the first cave where first cave.

Enroute was this interesting tree here from atop which had its roots through the rocks and finally hanging atop my head!!!

Did I tell you these caves also had Jain Beds.? Samana Padukkaigal as it is called in Tamizh, these are flat surfaces chiseled out by the Jain Monks who resided here in the 1^st & 2^nd C AD. These were flat surfaces sculpted out of the rocks with an elevated portion for the head like a pillow. So creative, isn’t it.? Also are some little ridges carved out. These might have been used to light up lamps with oil and some cotton fabric.

Here was the first set of inscriptions. So brainy they are to create a little ridging of the rock all through its length and then inscribing their wordings. This ridging has helped the inscriptions to survive the harsh rains.

From there the third gate. Now the route is hardly little enough to hold a person. There was the second set of inscriptions.