Pradakshina is as old as Hindu dharma itself. Since earliest antiquity, pilgrims have circumambulated holy mountains, temples, rivers and shrines. Even before time began, a Puranic legend tells us of Lord Siva directing his two sons to go for pradakshina around the entire universe in order that they might gain worldly knowledge. Subramanyam, his younger, dutifully takes up the task and spends the next several decades circumambulating the manifest world on his peacock. But Ganesh simply walks prayerfully around his father, the Lord, saying that the entirety of manifest reality is contained within Him.
Such a story not only sets a precedent for pradakshina as a form of worship and, for that matter, a means to jnana, but reveals deep wisdom about the nature of reality and the divine: the universe has the Lord at its centre, and yet is contained wholly within It. Arthur Osbourne quotes Bhagavan praising the Hill in a similar vein: “Everyone must come to Arunachala [in the end]. As the moon derives its light from the sun, so other holy places […] derive their sanctity from Arunachala. It is the heart of the world. Know it to be the secret and sacred Heart-centre of Lord Siva.”[1] And in the Suta Samhita: “All the spheres of the vast universe are located in Arunachala. It […] contains all in Itself.” “It is the inmost core of all beings…, the inmost…non-dual Reality. It is the Self. [And] there is nothing apart from It.”[2]
Aruna is ‘red-coloured’ or ‘fire-coloured’ while achala can be termed ‘hill’ or ‘mountain’ though, literally, it signifies ‘unmoving’. A common designation is ‘Hill of Fire’ but Arunachala could also be rendered ‘the unmoving Fire’.
As a pillar of flame, Arunachala is the pole connecting earth and heaven (axis mundi) around which all of creation revolves, and in which all the manifest universe has its source. This theme is recapitulated in the Arunachala Mahatmyam where we hear of Parvati coming to Arunachala to do penance by going around the Hill. Later she prays from the waters of Kadga Thirtam to be merged forever with Siva, the Pillar of Fire. Her prayer duly granted, ardhanariswara (the Lord with half female form) becomes Arunachala Siva, the primordial union of Shakti and Siva, Prakruti and Purusha, matter and spirit, as symbolised by the two basic elements of creation, water and fire, i.e. the earthly and divine transcendent.
When looked at more closely, achala’s relationship to ‘pole’ or ‘axis’ is very telling. Scholars say that the Sanskrit roots dhr (meaning ‘to support’, ‘to uphold’, ‘to establish’, as contained in the word dharma), and dhru such as in dhruva (meaning ‘firm’, steady’, ‘pole’ or ‘axis’), are cognates[3]. Like dharma, the cosmic ‘pole’ (druva) is unmoving. It is the still-point, the transcendent Unmanifest Reality that resides at the center of the universe. Thus etymologically dharma and dhruva are related, and ‘achala’, the Unmoving, means the changeless Transcendent. Thus, it seems clear why Bhagavan and the sastras would insist on Arunachala pradakshina — to go round the Hill is to not only to circumambulate and move toward dharma, but toward Being Itself.
Origins of Arunachala
Tracing the origins of pradakshina involves tracing the origins of Arunachala. It is not merely a question of first principles: the column of light signals the beginning of time; Arunachala’s genesis is the very story of creation. And yet, it is a creation that comes in the wake of terrible destruction. The Arunachala Purana tells how Brahma and Vishnu, ruled by pride, tussled with one another, wreaking havoc throughout the created order. As they “traded blows”, Nandi tells us:
The mountains were ground to dust. The cosmic shell exploded into fragments. The sun’s hot rays and the moon’s cold beams were blotted out. Even the celestial serpent Adisheshan writhed in pain, unable to bear the weight upon his head. The Gods [thought] the end of a world age must be at hand. Stars in their constellations and the massed clouds fell from the sky like falling leaves, as dust rose up and the tormented world fell into disorder. Bhagirathi and all lesser rivers ran dry while Mount Meru trembled, as the seven oceans turned to mud.
Viewing all this from above, the Lord was none too pleased with this state of affairs and resolved to settle matters decisively, once for all. The dramatic narrative continues:
At that precise moment, the Mountain of Fire exploded. The Gods and Rakshasas fainted away at the sound of the detonation. The Elephants of the Eight Directions vomited blood believing that the Sun itself had melted. Growing upwards through the earth, it expanded through all the realms of the Gods, bursting through the lofty vault of lotus-borne Brahma’s sphere. Going out beyond the universe’s enclosing shell it traversed the furthest limit of the vast ethereal region, looking to all the world like a Mount Meru of pure fire. Rushing out beyond all the worlds, far beyond the reach of those twin horses who draw the sun’s chariot as he spreads the rays of the dawn, dispelling the enveloping sapphire-like darkness, it shone out like a bright beacon set on high, so that all the oceans glowed blood red as if the immeasurable submarine fire at the world’s end had spread abroad. Then amid that scene, eclipsing the ruddy glow in the sky, […] the Three-Eyed One rose up, his radiant red form all covered in white ash.[4]
When Brahma and Vishnu saw how the pillar shone, they fell to the ground in supplication, calling to the Lord: “In order that gods and men might worship You, let this pole of light become a simple mountain, concealing within itself all its fiery splendour.” Heeding their request the Pillar cooled and became a mountain of ordinary stone. Suns and Moons, bhairavas, vidyaadaras, devas, nagas, tapasvins, munis, Brahmas and Vishnus gathered in such proximity that there was no place left to prostrate. Then the Lord announced, “In the month of Kartigai, in the constellation of Kritika, I shall appear as a bright beacon upon the summit of this Hill. Those who see that most excellent light will endure and prosper upon the earth” And the assembly’s wave-like cry—‘Hara, Hara!’—drowned even the roar of the oceans![5]
The First Pradakshinas of Arunachala
After the pillar of fire cooled into a simple mountain, Brahma and Vishnu covered their bodies in holy ash and performed the first pradakshina of Arunachala. Ashamed of their former pride, but now in a spirit of humility, they took up endless circumambulations, lasting, according to the Purana, fourteen thousand years.[6]
Parvati came to do penance by going in pradakshina. Upon its completion, she merged into Lord Arunachala, becoming his left half (the western side of the Mountain beginning at Adiannamalai). In time, Indra and the thirty-three crore devas appeared and commenced their
Establishing the Pradakshina Path
Kalpas passed until one day, in the time of the Pandya dynasty, there lived a just ruler named King Vajrangada. With Vajrangada’s labours of love at Arunachala, temples and lingas sprang up around the Holy Hill, marking each step of the way along the circuit. With new gopurams, Annamalai and Adiannamalai Temples, said to be connected by hidden underground tunnels, shone in full splendour like two glowing magnets at each end of the East-West axis running through the centre of the Hill. The asthalingas were established by the guardian deities (dikpalakas) of the four cardinal and four minor directions, drawing the attention of the entire universe towards its inner core. In making their circuits, once reaching one of the eight lingas, devotees would prostrate to the Hill and then do prostration before the Lord of the direction[7]. On their morning pilgrimages, Arunachala’s devotees instinctively kept to the left, making way for gods and siddhas in subtle form as the pre-dawn air wafted with the scent of siddha herbs and the fragrance of frangipani blossoms. The dust below their feet ever imbued with the holy power of countless crores of gods, sages and saints who had gone in pradakshina before them, they understood implicitly why the puranas declare that each stone on Arunachala is itself a lingam, each tree dotting Its landscape, the wish-fulfilling tree of devaloka. A mere step taken on the footway at Arunachala, the scripture tells, confers the benefit of a yaga and two steps, the fruit of rajasuuya yaga. As they made their way round, pilgrims noticed the ever-changing facets of Arunachala’s stone-form and yet, with each step, they became increasingly aware of the changeless stillness that pervaded His subtle-form. As their girivalam progressed, a deep silence welled up within them and grew in intensity so that once having completed the circuit and returned to the morning bustle of the town, it remained undisturbed.
Though they learned by rote the sacred writ pertaining to Arunachala, they knew from their own direct experience the benefits of pradakshina and never missed going in girivalam on Sivaratri Day or New Year’s Day (14th April) or the first day of the Tamil months. They knew that the punya of Arunachala girivalam was magnified in untold measure when performed on solstice days, solar eclipse days, full-moon days or on Kartigai Deepam Day. They also knew that going in the early morning hours before sunrise (brahma muhurtam) was the most auspicious time of all.
As the Holy Hill was not merely a linga but the ‘source of all lingas’, and as the path around its base was the sacred yoni enshrining and conjoining It, devotees performed the circumambulation in great awe, trepidation and humility, knowing It to be Lord Siva Himself. They went on foot, unaided by any conveyance, moving slowly like ‘a queen in her ninth month’, keeping silence within and without, compelling their attention be directed to Him alone, repeating His name, offering prayers of supplication or reciting hymns in His praise.
Golden Age of Arunachala Pradakshina
As the centuries passed, the numbers increased. Pilgrims came from distant places in order to perform the sacred rite. They reverenced the shrines and temples that punctuated the auspicious pathway facing the Lord and purified themselves by bathing in its tirthams.
In time the number of temples equalled the number of days of the year. Spending but one day in meditation at each shrine meant that a full year would be required just to complete a single circuit of the Hill.
Thus, the golden age of Arunachala pradakshina had arrived. It was a time when devotees knew the Lord’s Greatness. And they knew His true name—giripradakshinapriya (‘the Lord who loves giripradakshina’)[8]. It was an age when the great Tamil saints, with kings in their wake, came to do the circumambulation and be blessed by Holy Annamalai.
Jnanasambandar, led by the ‘old Brahmin’ (who turned out to be Lord Arunachala in disguise), came after being despoiled of his possessions, left with nothing but his hymns in praise of the Hill.
Appar visited and eulogized Arunachala as did Manickavachakar who sang Ammanai and his world-renowned Tiruvembavai while on the pradakshina path near Adi Annamalai Temple[9].
The Age of Forgetfulness
But this propitious age was not to endure and in spite of the great devotion and sacrifices made by King Vajrangada and the countless thousands and millions of devotees over vast stretches of time before him and those who came after him, the light of a gilded era, alas, slowly faded as succeeding generations slipped into the shadows of ignorance, losing sight altogether of the wisdom and devotion of their forbears. To be sure, some of the citizens of Tiruvannamalai and its immediate environs remained true to the Lord’s exhortation to go regularly in pradakshina and were keen to honour Him at Kartigai Deepam. But for the majority, forgetfulness like a deep slumber or a slow-acting narcotic crept up and quietly overtook them, dimming their sight.
By the late 19th century with the advent of the modern era, the world had fallen fast asleep while the Lord of Fire, the Unmoving Seat of Awareness sat alone in His consummate stillness, unremembered, even unknown, to a drowsy, ailing humanity.
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[1] Ramana Maharshi and the Path of Self Knowledge, p. 49.
[2] Glory of Arunachala, p. 7.
[3] See Rene Guenon’s Lord of the World, p. 10.
[4] See Arunachala Purana §107, §109-11, §119-20, §142, §157-59; (trans. Robert Butler), Mountain Path, vol. 44.3; vol. 48, 2&3.
[5] Glory of Arunachala, p. 219.
[6] Arunachala Purana §164-5. Siddhas and saints in subtle form came and began perpetual circumambulations. It is said that for the benefit of humanity, even Lord Siva began regular pradakshinas around the Holy Hill.
[7] The gods of the directions are: Indra (the East), Yama (the South), Varuna (the West), Kubera (the North), Easanyam (the north-east), Agni (the South-east), Nirruti (the South-west) and Vayu (the North-west).
[8] One of the names given to Arunachala by Adi Sankara.
[9] See Halasya Mahatmyam. See also Letters (20th September, 1947). A small temple on the pradakshina road in Adiannamalai marks the spot where the two poems were first recorded.
