Tiruttani

Tirtha (sacred site) in the hills of Tamil
Nadu, seventy-five miles of Madras. It is
famous for one of the six temples in
Tamil Nadu built to honor Murugan, a
hill deity assimilated into the pantheon
as a form of Skanda. Tiruttani is celebrated as the place where he marries his
tribal bride Valli, which gives him a family connection with southern India. Five
of these temples are definitively identified and scattered throughout the state,
but the sixth is said to be every other
shrine to Murugan in Tamil Nadu. The
cult of Murugan is thus a symbolic vehicle for Tamil pride and identity, and
because 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
outside is needed. For 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.