Tiruvannamalai

Temple town and sacred site (tirtha) in
the northern part of the state of Tamil
Nadu, about 100 miles southwest of
Madras, the capital. Tiruvannamalai is
most famous as a temple to the god
Shiva in his form as Arunachaleshvar,
“the Lord of Arunachal [Hill],” the
hill on which the temple is built.
Tiruvannamalai is also one of the
bhutalingas (“elemental lingas”), a network of five southern Indian sites sacred
to Shiva. In each of these sites, Shiva is
worshiped as a linga, the pillar-shaped
object that is his symbolic form, and at
each site the linga is believed to be formed
from one of the five primordial elements
(bhuta)—earth, wind, fire, water, and
space (akasha). Tiruvannamalai’s linga is
associated with the primordial element
of fire, making this an extremely
powerful image. Aside from the image
and the temple, Tiruvannamalai is also
famous as the place in which the modern Indian saint Ramana Maharshi
spent most of his life, from 1896 until his
death in 1950.