View allAll Photos Tagged Palani
Funny thing, there were more Sadhu's waiting here till the opening of the free canteen .....
I think they were hungry !
Date Taken: 2005-02-08
Canon EOS 1D Mark II, 24-70mm f/2.8L
Kombakadu - Life in the mountains
A dark tea room along the mountain road from Palani to Kodaikanal,
time for a tea break under the eye of Chief Minister Jayalalitha.
Moving down Pambar Ravine in Kodaikanal is a zigzagging stream that cascades over a series of rock formations. It is 4kms away from Kodaikanal. Now it is called as "Vattakanal Falls".
Trekking along the falls, getting in and out of its cold waters at scenic spots, was an awesome experience!!
www.flickr.com/photos/inair/8275541650/in/photostream
My Photoblog- My Third Eye...!
52By52
Photograph something you've been looking at or walking past for a long time, but which you've never photographed before.
— Palani Mohan
A view of town at the foot of the hill.
I could not avoid the twig on the left side, ladies and wall in the bottom, else I will miss this frame!
Shot at Pazhani temple outside.
Bottom of the image cropped to bring the subject closer.
I was moving towards the outer wall of Pazhani hill temple to take a view of the landscape below. Suddenly I heard lot of noise from the back. By the time I focused the camera the monkey started moving; it went behind the railing of the darsan queue.
.....vegetate in a village; if you would know, and not be known, live in a city - Charles Caleb Colton
This is POOMBARAI, a village at Palani hills.
Ettukkaal mandapam (ettu=eight, kaal=pillar, mantapam=pavillion)
Amanalingeswarar Temple is nearly 2000 years old, dedicated to God Siva close to the Thirumoorthy Dam located 50 km from Pollachi on Palani-Coimbatore Highway.
Legend goes that Athri Maharshi (Maha=great, Sage=saint) and his wife Anasooya lived in the place. The trio Gods – Brahma, Vishnu and Siva – also called thrimoorty (thri or thrayam = Three, moorthy=God, greatness) came here in disguise to test the fidelity/ devotion of the Anasooya to Athri Maharshi. Anasooya won, trio blessed the couple and thus the place came to be known as thrimoorthy or thirumoorthy.
It is also believed that the Jain priests lived here in these hills when Jainism flourished in Tamil Nadu. The massive rock which is worshiped as Thirumoorthy has a sculpture of a Jain priest.
thai poosam is a festival for lord Murugan throughout the world where ever tamil people live.
these are the organisers of nagarathar group from around famous chettinadu town which is in tamilnadu state of india.
the organisers are honoured with turban &garlands.
this is ongoing festival. celebrations will be there for another ten days.
during thai poosam festival people from around 150 -200 kms walk (barefoot ) from their place to palani very popular Lord Murugan temple .
.thanks for every one for views, faves, and comments.
At the time of Sunset over Tiruthani Murugan temple - @ Tiruthani,Tamilnadu, India (A long range handheld shot).
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Tiruthani Murugan temple is a Hindu temple, in the hill of Thiruttani, South India, dedicated to Lord Muruga. The hill has 365 steps indicating 365 days of the year.It is one of the Arupadaiveedu, the six holy abodes of Lord Muruga. The other five are: Palani (100 km west of Madurai), Swamimalai (150 km east of Madurai), Tirupparangunram (5 km from Madurai), Pazhamudircholai (10 km north of Madurai) and Thiruchendur (100 km south of Madurai).
The origins of this temple, like most Hindu temples, are buried in antiquity. This temple has been mentioned in the Sangam period work Tirumurugaatruppadai composed by Nakkeerar. It has been patronized by the Vijayanagar rulers and local chieftains and zamindars.
Legend also has it that Indra the king of the Gods gave his daughter Deivayanai in marriage to Skanda, and along with her presented his elephant Airavatam as part of his dowry offering. Upon Airavatam's departure Indra found his wealth waning. Subramanyar is said to have offered to return the white elephant, however Indra bound by protocol refused to accept a gift that he had made, and insisted that the elephant face his direction, hence the image of the elephant in this temple also faces the east.
Another legend has it that Indra presented a sandal stone as a part of his daughters dowry. The sandal paste made on this stone is applied to the image of Subramanya and the applied paste is said to acquire medicinal value. Legend also has it that Skanda bore the discus thrown by the demon Tarakasuran on his chest, and hence there is a hollow in the chest region of the image of Subramanya in this temple. Legend also has it that Skanda gifted the discus to Vishnu (Please also see Tiruveezhimizhalai and Tirumalper). Skanda is also believed to have imparted knowledge of Tamil to the sage Agasthyar and he is regarded as Veeramurthy, Gnanamurthy and Acharyamurthy in this shrine.
Lord Rama, after putting an end to Ravana, worshipped Lord Siva at Rameswaram and then came to Tiruttani to find perfect peace of mind by worshipping Lord Subrahmanya here. In Dwapara Yuga, Arjuna got the blessings of our Lord here by offering prayers to Him on his way to the South for Teertha Yatra (pilgrimage to take sacred immersion). Lord Vishnu prayed to the Lord and got back His powerful Chakra (sacred wheel), Shanku (sacred conch), which were forcibly seized from Him by Tarakasura, brother of Soorapadma. Lord Brahma propitiated the Lord here at the holy spring known as Brahmasonai after his imprisonment by our Lord for his failure to explain the Pranava ('Om' mantra) and got back his creative function of which he was deprived by our Lord due to his egotistic impudence in neglecting to worship Lord Subrahmanya on his way to Mount Kailasa to worship Lord Siva. The final steps to the eastern entrance.
On worshipping our Lord at Thanikai, the king of snakes Vasuki got his bodily wounds healed, which had been caused during the churning process in the Milky Ocean to secure the Amrita (nectar of immortality) by the devas and asuras when the Mantotra Mountain was used as the churning base and the snake king Vasuki as the rope. Sage Agasthyar Muni (of Potikai Hill) worshipped Lord Muruga at Tanikai when he was blessed with the divine gift of the Tamil language.
Apart from its puranic greatness, Saint Arunagirinathar has praised this hill as the chosen place for worship by devas and the favorite abode of saints performing prolonged tapas. He also compared this hill to Sivaloka (Bhuloka) and as the very soul of the world. Sri Muttuswami Deekshitar, who lived 200 years ago (one of the trinity of Carnatic music) had his inspiration in Tiruttani when the Lord (in the guise of an old man) met him on the steps and sweetened his tongue with the prasadam of this temple, which impelled him to compose and render his first krithi "Shri Nathadhi Guruguho Jayathi Jayathi"(song) on Lord Murugan of Tanikai. The temple vimanam was covered by gold.
Source : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiruthani_Murugan_Temple
Palani - landscape of TamilNadu
After escaping the noisy and crowded Murugan Festival at the Dhandapani Murugan Temple in Palani,
we enjoyed the silent nature on the way to Kodakanal.
I shot this lady and her husband at Haji Malang , they had come to fulfill their vow on completion of a wish..removal of hair and a few strands offered to the Holy Saint .. this is also known in Muslim parlance as completion of a Mannat.. the couple both Hindus from Andhra Pradesh .. devotees of the Holy Saint of Haji Malang a Shrine in the Malangad Mountains close to Kalyan..
Religious Tonsure
Tonsure is the practice of some Christian churches, mystics, Buddhist novices and monks, and some Hindu temples of cutting the hair from the scalp of clerics, devotees, or holy people as a symbol of their renunciation of worldly fashion and esteem.
The origin of the tonsure remains unclear, but it certainly was not widely known in antiquity. There were three forms of tonsure known in the 7th and 8th centuries:
* The Oriental, which claimed the authority of Saint Paul the Apostle (Acts 18:18) and consisted of shaving the whole head. This was observed in the Eastern churches, including the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches. Hence Theodore of Tarsus, who had acquired his learning in Byzantine Asia Minor and bore this tonsure, had to allow his hair to grow for four months before he could be tonsured after the Roman fashion, and then ordained Archbishop of Canterbury by Pope Vitalian in 668.
* The Celtic, the exact shape of which is unclear from the sources, but in some way involved shaving the head from ear to ear.[1] The shape may have been semicircular, arcing forward from a line between the ears, but another popular suggestion, less borne out in the sources, proposes that the entire forehead was shaved back to the ears.[2] More recently a triangular shape, with one point at the front of the head going back to a line between the ears, has been suggested.[1] The Celtic tonsure was worn in Ireland and Great Britain and was connected to the distinct set of practices known as Celtic Christianity.[3] It was greatly despised by those affiliated with the Roman custom, who considered it unorthodox and associated it with the heretic Simon Magus.[4]
* The Roman: this consisted of shaving only the top of the head, so as to allow the hair to grow in the form of a crown. This is claimed to have originated with Saint Peter, and was the practice of the Latin Rite Roman Catholic Church.
These claimed origins are possibly unhistorical; the earliest history of the tonsure is lost in obscurity. This practice is not improbably connected with the idea that long hair is the mark of a freeman, while the shaven head marks the slave (in the religious sense: a servant of God). Other theories are that the tonsure mimics male pattern baldness in an attempt to lend artificial respectability to men too young to display the real thing[citation needed], or that the tonsure is a ritual created by balding superiors in act of vanity and power over young non-bald subordinates.
Among the Germanic tribes, there appeared the custom that an unsuccessful pretender or a dethroned king would be tonsured. Then he had to retire to a monastery, but sometimes this lasted only until his hair grew back.[5]) The practice of tonsure, coupled with castration, was common for deposed emperors and his sons in Byzantium from around the 8th century, prior to which execution, usually by blinding, was the normal practice[6].
[edit] Tonsure today
[edit] Christianity
[edit] Western Christianity
In the Latin or Western Rite of the Roman Catholic Church, "first tonsure" was, in medieval times, the rite of inducting someone into the clergy and qualifying him for the civil benefits then enjoyed by clerics. Tonsure was a prerequisite for receiving the minor and major orders. Failing to maintain tonsure was the equivalent of attempting to abandon one's clerical state, and in the 1917 Code of Canon Law, any cleric in minor orders (or simply tonsured) who did not resume the tonsure within a month after being warned by his Ordinary, lost the clerical state. Over time, the appearance of tonsure varied, ending up for non-monastic clergy as generally consisting of a symbolic cutting of a few tufts of hair at first tonsure in the Sign of the Cross and in wearing a bare spot on the back of the head which varied according to the degree of orders. It was not supposed to be less than the size of a communicant's host, even for a tonsuratus, someone simply tonsured, and the approximate size for a priest's tonsure was the size of a priest's host. Countries that were not Catholic had exceptions to this rule, especially in the English-speaking world. In England and America, for example, the bare spot was dispensed with, likely because of the persecutions that could arise from being a part of the Catholic clergy, but the ceremonious cutting of the hair in the first clerical tonsure was always required. In accordance with Pope Paul VI's motu proprio Ministeria quaedam of 15 August 1972, "first tonsure is no longer conferred". Since that time, however, certain institutes have been authorized to use the first clerical tonsure, such as the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (1988), the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (1990), and the Personal Apostolic Administration of Saint John Mary Vianney, (2001).
Apart from this general clerical tonsure, some Western Rite monastic orders, for example Carthusians and Trappists, employed a very full version of tonsure, shaving the head entirely bald and keeping only a narrow ring of short hair, sometimes called "the monastic crown" (see "Roman tonsure", above), from the time of entrance into the monastic novitiate for all monks, whether destined for service as priests or brothers. Some monastic orders and individual monasteries still maintain the tradition of a monastic tonsure.
The fuller form of clerical tonsure led to the wearing of a skull cap in church to keep the head warm. This skull cap, called a zuchetto, is still worn by the Pope (in white), Cardinals (in red) and bishops (in purple) both during and outside of formal religious ceremonies. Priests may wear a simple black zuchetto, only outside of religious services, though this is almost never seen except as a practical garment used for warmth by some monks. Some priests who held special titles (certain ranks of monsignori and some canons, for instance) formerly wore black zuchettos with red or purple piping, but this too has fallen out of use except in a few, extremely rare cases.
[edit] Eastern Christianity
Today in Eastern Orthodoxy and in the Eastern Catholic Churches of Byzantine Rite, there are three types of tonsure: baptismal, monastic, and clerical. It always consists of the cutting of four locks of hair in a cruciform pattern: at the front of head as the celebrant says "In the Name of the Father", at the back of head at the words "and the Son", and on either side of the head at the words "and the Holy Spirit". In all cases, the hair is allowed to grow back; the tonsure as such is not adopted as a hairstyle.
Baptismal tonsure is performed during the rite of Holy Baptism as a first sacrificial offering by the newly baptized. This tonsure is always performed, whether the one being baptized is an infant or an adult.
Monastic tonsure (of which there are three grades: Rassophore, Stavrophore and the Great Schema), is the rite of initiation into the monastic state, symbolic of cutting off of self-will. Orthodox monks traditionally never cut their hair or beards after receiving the monastic tonsure as a sign of the consecration of their lives to God (reminiscent of the Vow of the Nazirite).
Clerical tonsure is the equivalent of the "first tonsure" in the Latin church. It is done immediately prior to ordination to the minor order of reader but is not repeated at subsequrent ordinations.[7] This led to a once common usage that one was, for instance, "tonsured a reader", although technically the tonsure occurs prior to the prayer of ordination within the ordination rite.
[edit] Buddhism
In Buddhism tonsure is a part of the rite of pabbajja and also a part of becoming a monk. This involves shaving head and face. This tonsure is renewed as often as required to keep the head cleanly shaven.
[edit] Hinduism
In Hinduism, the underlying concept is that hair is a symbolic offering to the gods, representing a real sacrifice of beauty, and in return, are given blessings in proportion to their sacrifice.
Hair cutting (Sanskrit cuda karma, cuda karana) is one of traditional saṃskāras performed for young children:
"According to the teaching of the revealed texts, the Kudakarman (tonsure) must be performed, for the sake of spiritual merit, by all twice-born men in the first or third year."[8]
In some traditions the head is shaven completely while in others a small tuft of hair called sikha is left.
In some South Indian temples like Tirumala, Palani and Tiruttani it is customary for pilgrims to shave their heads in or near the temple of the god they are visiting.
There has been an Indian custom to perform a tonsure on widows after their husbands' death. It is not uncommon to tonsure the head of a child after the death of a parent (usually father).
K. Jamanadas has argued that tonsure was originally a Buddhist costum and that Brahmanic practices always considered tonsure inauspicious.[9]
Tonsuring in the in the Hindu culture serves multiple purposes and is used as a symbol. One of Its most prominent purposes is to show ones love for the God by washing away their past and starting anew [10]. Moreover tonsuring can be used for punishment or to show that someone is an outcast in society because of the law they have broken . It is also used as a way to raise money for local synagogues which is where women across India become victims of the more powerful leaders .Firstly, the art of tonsuring originated before the Common Era . The original purpose for tonsuring was to show ones devotion to the Gods by shaving their heads clean, women included, and start their lives anew. By shaving their heads, it enabled these people to free themselves from their past sins and continue on with purer lives. However over the course of thousands of years, tonsuring has found new functions. Tonsuring can denote ones social class or personal standing. For example, someone with a closely shaven head is practicing celibacy . A social outcast will have a completely bald heads while men that are ardently religious will shave their heads only leaving a sihka 1.Seoncdly tonsuring can be used for punishing people for dastardly crimes. For example in mid June 2009, a Hindu woman was accused of killing her husband alongside her two sons. She was then beaten in public and shaven bald, which is also symbolic of social ostracizing [11]. There are many other cases of tonsuring being used for that purpose however when used for that, people are shaven clean leaving them completely bald. Punishment for women with tonsuring is more severe, sadly, than with men. This is due to the social injustices that women have to face within the Hindu culture. In the modern era, tonsuring has been used as a way of generating income for the Hindu community while unfortunately victimizing the female community. For example, the American hair industry uses the free trade process to make profit not only for them but the people of India . The free trade works as such: the American hair industry buys the hair materials directly from the Hindu populace to later use in their community; after generating an amount of income a percentage of it (usually more) is given back to the Hindu community[12]. This money is used by the Hindu people to fund the expansion of their synagogues and helping their community. Unfortunately, many Hindu women are forced to shave their heads against their will and face brutality from their community leaders. This has become a problem within this community and higher leaders are trying to find ways to solve the issue. Even so, it is a very gray area and it has proven to become hard to stop because it has moved to an “underground” state . Political leaders are not stopping and are still trying to find ways to prevent the persecution of their women by these community leaders.
[edit] Islam
It is a ritual for pilgrims on the event of Hajj to shave their heads before entering Mecca. Shaving off hair from the head was considered an ancient symbol of becoming a slave in Arabia and when a pilgrim shaves his head, he declares himself to be the slave of his Lord.[13]
Martin Luther held that the mark of the beast was the tonsured haircut worn by Roman Catholic clergy.[14]
Religious devotees worshiping Lord Muruga at the entrance of the Murugan Temple in Palani, Tamil Nadu, India.
Anu Palani was born and raised in Madurai and is currently a Software engineer working in Bangalore. She believes in the possibilities that life has to offer and is a great sucker for books with happy endings. She was the TOI Write India winner for Season 2.
A hillock adjacent to Palani hills. On the top of it is a small temple dedicated to Idumban.
Idumban belong to asura group. After the war between God Murugan and asuras Idumban repented & became a devotee of the God.
This hill is gaining attention these days. It is totally dry and hot, no shops, no water, no shade and much less space on the top.
My previous upload--Sulphur Cosmos--got more than 33,800 views in three days and I dont know how and why!
24 hrs-4000 views, 65 fave
48 hrs-29,000 views 89 faves
72 hrs-33,800 + views
A young child carried by a father in the Temple town of Palani in Tamil Nadu, India.
Religious devotees worshiping Lord Muruga at the entrance of the Murugan Temple in Palani, Tamil Nadu, India. Shot with a Canon 50mm and edited in Lightroom.