Palani

Town and sacred site (tirtha) in the eastern part of the state of Tamil Nadu,
about sixty miles northwest of Madurai.
Palani is part of a network of six temples
in Tamil Nadu dedicated to Murugan, a
hill deity who has been assimilated into
the larger pantheon as a form of the god
Skanda, the son of Shiva. Five of these
temples have been definitively identified, and each is associated with a particular region, a particular ecosystem,
and a particular incident in Murugan’s
mythic career—in the case of Palani,
Murugan lived there as a young ascetic.
Every other shrine to Murugan in Tamil
Nadu can be considered the sixth of
these temples. The cult of Murugan is
thus a symbolic vehicle for Tamil pride
and identity, and since the number six
has connotations of completeness—as
in the six directions, or the six chakras
in the subtle body—it also connotes
that nothing external is needed. For
489
Palani
further information see Fred Clothey,
“Pilgrimage Centers in the Tamil
Cultus of Murukan,” in Journal of the
American Academy of Religion, Vol. 40,
No. 1 (1972).