The first abode

The Sangam poem Tirumurugatruppadai guides a pilgrim to six shrines of Murugan, and Thiruparankundram, on the southwestern edge of Madurai, comes first. Tradition holds that Murugan married Deivanai, the daughter of Indra, here after his victory at Tiruchendur, so the temple is a favourite for weddings and the Panguni Uthiram wedding festival.

Carved into the hill

Unlike most Tamil temples, the sanctum is not a free-standing building. Its shrines are cut into the living rock of the hill, and a Pandya-era inscription of the late 8th century records work on the cave shrine. Inside, Murugan shares the rock face with Shiva as Parangirinathar, Vishnu, Durga and Vinayaka, an unusual gathering in a single sanctum. The tall gopuram and the pillared halls you walk through to reach the rock were added much later, largely in the Nayak period.

Older than the temple

The hill was sacred long before the temple. Natural caverns near the summit hold stone beds and Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions dated to around the 1st century BCE, usually linked to Jain monks. Today the temple is run by the Tamil Nadu HR&CE Department and is busiest during Kantha Sashti in the month of Aippasi.