This evening I visited one of my favourite Amman Temples at Tiruvannamalai, the very beautiful Rajarajeshwari Temple on the girivalam pathway. I went to meet one of the Trustees of the Temple to get some details and history of this small but significant Shrine. I will be posting information of the Temple on this Blog in upcoming days and also posting a short descriptive narrative of it in Arunachala Grace News, which will be sent to subscribers at the end of this month.
While at the Temple, I learnt several signficant details but the one that surprised me the most was the fact that there is one area of the 14 km girivalam pathway from which the Deepam light at the top of Arunachala cannot be seen during the Karthika function.
In the below photograph I am standing in front of the gate of the Rajarajeshwari Temple compound looking out at a spur of the Mountain called Parvati Hill.
There is a stretch of about .5 kms, including this Parvati Hill, out of the 14 km girivalam pathway starting at Palani Andar Shrine and ending at Surya Lingam from which Shiva's light during Deepam cannot be seen.
The Trustee told me that it is believed that this short part of the Girivalam pathway is regarded as particularly Amman's and in ways subtley different to the rest of the pradakshina path.
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