Kolanjiappar Koil, Manavalanallur near Vridhachalam,

Kolanjiappar Koil, Manavalanallur near Vridhachalam,

Once Sundarar finished prayers at Vridhagiriswarar temple a he started walking away from the temple. His songs were so beautiful that put the Lord in a trance.

Shiva was much pleased with his rendition and wanted to have him sing a song again.  As Sundarar had left that place, he directed his  naughty son Murugha to go and fetch Sundarar.

Muruga took  the form of a hunter & appeared at the Kolanji forest through which Sundarar was traversing. The hunter took away the belongings of Sundarar. Sundarar demanded the hunter to return his belongings for which the hunter wanted him to be back at Virudhachalam. Understanding that it is a divine play, Sundarar returned to Virudhachalam temple and sang in praise of Shiva again. Vridha means old  and Chala means a hill; the place got its name  Virudhachalam thus.

The place (in the forest) where Murugha stopped Sundarar was surrounded by Kolanji Trees (a tree which has fruits like Lemon/ Narthankai). From that day Murugha blessed people taking the shape of a Peetam. This is a formless form and is unique to Murugha.  The greatness of this temple came to light only in the last few hundred years when villagers realised that one of their cows pours its milk in a jungle and returns silently, every day.

This temple is popular for the 'petititions' people write to Lord Murugha. Within 3 hours or 3 days or 3 months the wishes of the petitioners are granted. Many have benefitted out of the kindness of Lord Murugha at this temple.

This is an interesting temple where we get to see Murugha in a totally different form.  Lot of published materials are available on the web.

Without knowing that today is Sashti, I had the opportunity to visit and pray at this temple.

This temple originally was under a thatched hut, but now has a fairly big structure. This temple is 2kms from the Vridhagiriswara temple.