CityDekho
Palani Murugan Temple

Palani Murugan Temple

pilgrimage site · Tamil Nadu

Palani's Dhandayuthapani Swamy — Murugan as the renunciate boy with staff and loincloth — watches from his hill shrine over one of Tamil Nadu's greatest pilgrimages.

State
Tamil Nadu
Type
Pilgrimage Site

Palani's Dhandayuthapani Swamy — Murugan as the renunciate boy with staff and loincloth — watches from his hill shrine over one of Tamil Nadu's greatest pilgrimages. This is where the child god, losing the contest for the fruit of wisdom, stormed off declaring 'You yourself are the fruit' (Pazham Nee), and where the idol, by tradition, was shaped by siddha Bogar from nine poisonous minerals. Pilgrims climb the 690 steps, ride the winch trains, or carry kavadis in their lakhs at Thaipusam.

When to go

October to March; Thaipusam

Why visit

Murugan's hill of renunciation — kavadi processions, 690 steps and the panchamirtham prasadam.

How to reach

Palani town is 65 km from Dindigul and 110 km from Madurai, with its own railway station; the hill has steps, a winch railway and a ropeway.

Palani Murugan Temple guide & itineraries

Reviews & ratings

What travellers say about Palani Murugan Temple

CityDekho traveller reviews

★★★★★★★★★★

No CityDekho reviews yet

Be the first traveller to review this place.

Sign in to write a review

Community

Ask questions and share tips about Palani Murugan Temple

Sign in to ask a question or share a tip about Palani Murugan Temple.

Loading…

Been to Palani Murugan Temple?

Write what you would tell a friend — where you stayed, what you would skip, the thing you wish somebody had mentioned before you went. We read every submission before it goes up.

Share your story

More spiritual places to explore

More places you'll love

Assam

Hajo

Hajo is an ancient pilgrimage town near Guwahati in Assam, revered across three faiths. The hilltop Hayagriva Madhava temple draws Hindus and some Buddhists who believe the Buddha attained nirvana here, while the nearby Poa Mecca is an important Muslim shrine, making Hajo a rare centre of shared devotion.

Maharashtra

Siddhivinayak Temple (Mumbai)

Shree Siddhivinayak is Mumbai's most beloved Ganesha temple, built in 1801 and today one of the richest and most-visited shrines in India. Its inner sanctum enshrines a black-stone idol of Lord Ganesha whose trunk curves to the right, a rare and especially auspicious form that draws millions of devotees, film stars and cricketers alike.

Karnataka

ISKCON Temple (Bengaluru)

ISKCON Sri Radha Krishna Temple in Rajajinagar is one of the largest ISKCON temples in the world, a striking blend of modern glass-and-steel architecture with traditional gopuram-topped shrines. Opened in 1997 on Hare Krishna Hill, it is a major centre for Krishna devotion, cultural programmes and prasadam distribution in Bengaluru.

Andhra Pradesh

Srisailam (Mallikarjuna Jyotirlinga)

Srisailam, set amid the forested Nallamala Hills above the Krishna River, is home to the Bhramaramba Mallikarjuna Temple, a rare site that is at once one of the twelve Jyotirlingas of Shiva (as Mallikarjuna) and one of the Shakti Peethas (as Bhramaramba Devi). This dual sanctity makes it one of southern India's most powerful pilgrimage destinations.

Kerala

Padmanabhaswamy Temple (Thiruvananthapuram)

Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram is a Vaishnava shrine where Lord Vishnu reclines on the serpent Anantha in the Anantha-shayanam posture. Blending Kerala and Dravidian styles with a towering seven-tier gopuram, it became world-famous when vast treasures were documented in its vaults, ranking it among the wealthiest temples on earth.

Kerala

Guruvayur (Sri Krishna Temple)

Guruvayur is a temple town in Kerala centred on the revered Sri Krishna (Guruvayurappan) Temple, often called the Dwarka of the South. The deity is worshipped as the young Krishna, and the shrine is one of the busiest Vaishnava pilgrimage centres in India, famed for its strict rituals, temple elephants and devotional music.

Maharashtra

Trimbakeshwar (Jyotirlinga)

Trimbakeshwar, near Nashik in Maharashtra, enshrines one of the twelve sacred Jyotirlingas of Shiva and marks the source of the Godavari, India's second-longest river. Its distinctive lingam bears three faces representing Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, and the town is a key site for the Nashik Kumbh Mela.

Gujarat

Shatrunjaya Hill

Shatrunjaya Hill, near Palitana town in the Bhavnagar district, is a world-famous sacred mountain rising above the Shatrunjaya River. It stands as a unique structural wonder, being the world's only mountain holding a fortified complex of more than 860 carved marble temples built over a millennium. Considered an entirely holy landscape by the Jain community, no vehicles are permitted past the base database, requiring pilgrims and travelers to scale approximately 3,500 stone steps to reach the mountaintop complex.

Gujarat

Pavagadh Hill

Pavagadh Hill is a volcanic plateau rising about 822 metres from the plains of the Panchmahal district, at the heart of the UNESCO-listed Champaner-Pavagadh Archaeological Park. Its slopes hold Rajput fortifications, medieval gateways and reservoirs, and a much-visited Kalika Mata (Shakti Peeth) shrine near the top.

Gujarat

Valsad

Valsad, once known as Bulsar, sits at the southern tip of Gujarat on the Arabian Sea. It is known for its mango orchards — the source of much of the region's Alphonso (Hafoos) crop — and mixes an industrial economy with easygoing coastal and temple tourism. With black-sand beaches and the union territory of Daman close by, it is a popular weekend break for visitors from Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Gujarat

Jamnagar

Jamnagar, once the princely capital of Nawanagar under the Jadeja rulers, sits on the southern Gulf of Kutch. Known as the 'Jewel of Kathiawar' and, for its many temples, as 'Chhoti Kashi', it pairs royal-era architecture — lake palaces, colonial squares and a solar observatory — with a large modern industrial belt. Nearby lie coral reefs and coastal wetlands rich in birdlife.

Gujarat

Gandhinagar

Gandhinagar, the meticulously master-planned capital city of Gujarat, stands on the west bank of the Sabarmati River. Designed by visionary architects H.K. Mewada and Prakash M. Apte, it is internationally recognized as one of India's greenest administrative capitals, laid out in an orderly grid of 30 structured sectors. Beyond its primary role as a political and bureaucratic powerhouse, Gandhinagar handles a massive leisure and spiritual tourist footprint due to its high-capacity exhibition facilities, lush urban forest canopy covers, eco-nature parks, and monumental temple installations.

Trending in Tamil Nadu

Madurai (Meenakshi Amman Temple)

Madurai (Meenakshi Amman Temple)

The Meenakshi Amman Temple is a historic Dravidian temple complex located in the heart of Madurai, an ancient city on the banks of the Vaigai River. Dedicated to Goddess Meenakshi, a powerful form of Parvati, and her consort Sundareswarar, a form of Shiva, the complex stands as a supreme architectural masterpiece of South Indian civilization. The complex is enclosed by massive high stone walls and dominated by 14 towering gateway towers, or gopurams, completely carpeted with thousands of brightly painted stone sculptures of deities, demons, and celestial beings. Inside, the temple features grand columned assembly halls, including the legendary Hall of a Thousand Pillars, and a sacred golden lotus pond that serves as a ritual center for millions of annual devotees.

Ooty (Udhagamandalam)

Ooty (Udhagamandalam)

Ooty sits at 2,240 metres and was built by the British as a hot-weather escape, which is still exactly what it is used for — and why April and May are the months to avoid, when the plains empty into it. The Nilgiri Mountain Railway is the best thing in the district. It climbs from Mettupalayam on a rack-and-pinion section, takes about five hours, and is UNESCO-listed. Book ahead in season or take the ordinary carriage, which is fine. Doddabetta, the highest point in the Nilgiris, is ten kilometres out and usually inside cloud by afternoon. The Botanical Garden dates from 1848 and has a fossil trunk around twenty million years old in it. The lake is man-made and rented out by the hour. Tea here is grown for volume rather than for named estates, and the roadside shops sell a great deal of flavoured dust. Buy from an estate if you care about it. September to November, and January to March.

Rameshwaram (Ramanathaswamy Temple)

Rameshwaram sits at the very tip of a slender island connected to the Tamil Nadu mainland by the Pamban Bridge, looking out across the Palk Strait toward Sri Lanka. At its heart is the Ramanathaswamy Temple, famous for the longest corridor of any temple in India — a nearly 1,200-metre passage of sculpted pillars that seems to stretch to the horizon. As one of the twelve Jyotirlingas and one of the four Char Dham, it draws pilgrims from every corner of the country, many of whom arrive after Varanasi, believing a visit to Rameshwaram completes the pilgrimage circuit.

Chettinad (Karaikudi)

Chettinad (Karaikudi)

Chettinad, centred on Karaikudi in Tamil Nadu, is a region famous for the grand mansions of the Nattukottai Chettiar merchant community and for one of India's most celebrated cuisines. The palatial 19th and early 20th-century homes, built with Burmese teak, imported marble and Athangudi tiles, reflect the community's global trade, while Chettinad food is prized for its bold, aromatic spices.