Dhandayuthapani Swamy Temple
— — the god who chose the fruit of wisdom over the world.
Not only on a wall.
“A hill temple in the foothills of the Western Ghats, dedicated to Murugan in his form as Dhandayuthapani, the renunciate with the staff. The shrine stands on Palani Hill, reached by a long flight of stone steps or by a winch railway and ropeway. Pilgrims arrive carrying kavadis. The town below carries the smell of jaggery and ghee from the temple's famous panchamirtham. — from the studio
Dhandayuthapani Swamy Temple, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Arulmigu Dhandayuthapani Swamy Temple sits on a granite hill rising about 150 metres above the town of Palani, in the Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu. It is one of the six Arupadai Veedu, the principal abodes of the god Murugan in Tamil tradition. The presiding murti is said to have been formed by the sage Bogar from navapashanam, an alloy of nine medicinal substances. The hill is reached by 693 stone steps, a winch railway opened in 1965, and a ropeway added later by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments department.
The temple opens by around five in the morning for the Viswaroopa darshanam and runs through to about nine in the evening, with six daily pujas in between. The largest gathering is the Thaipusam festival in the Tamil month of Thai, when hundreds of thousands of devotees climb the steps carrying kavadis, wooden arches balanced on the shoulders as a vow. The Panguni Uthiram festival in March is the second great gathering. The administration is held by the Tamil Nadu HR and CE board, with darshan timings posted at the foot of the hill.
The temple's panchamirtham, a sweet offering of banana, jaggery, dates, ghee, and other ingredients, received a Geographical Indication tag from the Government of India in 2019, the first temple prasadam in the country to do so. Production runs into the tens of thousands of kilograms during festival weeks. The cycle of the year here is read through Tamil months: Thai for Thaipusam, Panguni for Panguni Uthiram, and Vaikasi for Vaikasi Visakam, the god's birth festival. The hill's rituals do not pause.