Namakkal - Tourist Information

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Namakkal - Tourist Information

Kolli Hills / Kolli Water Falls

Kolli Hills is a major mountain range and is an outliner of the Eastern Ghats. It is eighteen miles ( 28 Kilometeres) long (north south) twelve miles(19 Kilometers) wide (east/west) and covers approximately 400 square miles. The name Kolli Malai refers to the mountain's once hostile nature; the unsuspecting and unaclamatized aliens, attracted by natural beauty. Viewed from plains of Namakkal the mountain appears as a flat-topped mass. The mountain has been inhabitated from prehistoric times.

It is much celebrated in the Tamil Literature of the Sangam period; at least eleven poets mention it in their poems. Next to the Servarayan, this is the only mountain that is still covered with remnants of rain forests. The government reserve forests are seen in Ariyur, Puliyan Solai, Selur and Vazhavandhi Nadu. An area of 2,00 hectares is in the process of reforestation. Tigers and elephants which were once common in it are now extinct; only small animals such as black bears, hares, porcpines, and wild dogs are seen.

Tiruchengode Malai

Mountain of the Holy Red Peak(1923) high. The legends have spawned a multitude of names fir the hill such as Aravagiri, Brahmagiri, Bogimalai, Chakkiri Meru, Dhenugri. According to the Ramayana legends , the hill fell off from the Sanjivi when it was carried aloft by Anjaneya, the Monkey God. Another legend claims that the hill was the result of a combat of strength between vayu, the wind-god and Adhisesha, the thousand -head serpent king.

Adhisesha coiled himself around the Himalayas and Vayu tried to dislodge him by huffing and puffing. So fierce was the resultantstorm that Gods saints implored the scrpent king to yeild. Adhisesha slightly raised one of his hoods in order to listen better, when Vayu increased the force of wind and tore off the raised hood along with five peaks. The peaks, stained with the snake's blood, flew through the air and landed at where they are now. One of the five peaks is this Nagagiri (Snake Mountian) the other four being Kanjamalai,

Sankagiri, Pushpagiri (otherwise known as Morur Malai) and Urasa Kuntha Kottai hill. After the combat was over, Kamadhenu, the divine cow, ontained from siva the grant of the five peaks and consecrated them with her milk. They, collectively known as Panchanaadi Kodumudi, are: Dhanjayanaadi Kodumudi, Dhevadhat- Thanaad-Kodumudi - Kumaranaadi Kodumudi, Kurukathanaadi Kodumudi and Rishabanaadi Kodumudi. The mountain is perceived as a symbol and a sacred place composed of male and female elements , the peak stained with the male serpent's bold and consecrated by the divine cow. The sacredness and symbolism are further emphasized by the Siva temple on its top which is dedicated to Arthanari female

Namakkal Dhurgam Fort

The fort is on the summit of Namagiri. It is one of a few naturally strong forts steeped in bloody history of the district. It was under Mysore until it was captured by the British in 1769. It was retaken by Hyder Ali a few months afterwards and was lost again to the British in 1792. It contains the ruins of a Vishnu temple dedicated to Ethirili(Peerless) Perumal with in inscription of Sadaiyavaraman Sundhara Pandiyan.The fort covers an area of one and a half acres of flat surface and is accessible from the southwest by a flight of narrow steps.The namam (mark) is the white and red graphic symbol of Vishnu. The symbol is depicted with two white and one red vertical lines. The Vaishnavites usually wear the symbol on their forehead.

On the hills and hillocks of Salem where Vishnu Shrines are situated, large namams are painted on the nearby boulders. On the Nama Malai , the northern spur(693 meters high) of the Jarugu Malai range, a conspicuous namam is painted on a rock on the hill side near a small Vishnu shrine. Each of the two prongs (representing the feet of Vishnu) of the namam is about 40' long and 6'eide, clearly visible from all parts of the city. Le Fanu commented.On this enormous representation in colours of the sacred trident (which) can be seen by the worshipper some seven miles off. This mode of parading religious insignia is by no means peculiar of India.

The traveler by the Great Western Railway to oxfordshire (in English) will see the whole side of a hill stripped to the gravel in the shape of an enormous cross. I have seen in Salt Lake City, USA an enormous U painted on the hill signifying the University of Utah. Mountain of Nama. It is the name of rounded mass of gneiss rock (65 meters high and about a mile in circumference) at the center of Namakkal town. The rock expanse on the eastern base of the hill was where Mahatma Gandhi held a Public meeting in 1933. Two rock-cut cave temples dedicated to Ananthasayi and Narasimha Swamy, are on the eastern and western sides of the rock.

The temples and the images of Gods within the temples were hewn out of the living rock. As they grow naturally out of the living stuff of the earth and is sustained by the power of the rock and hill, these shrines are esteemed higher than the ordinarily built temples.The rock also contains eight theerthams ( holy water springs) the biggest of which is the Kamalayam (Home of the Lotus) sacred to the Goddess Namagiri Amman. It was the chief source of water supply for the town until water from the Kaveri was brought. The other other Theerthams are Anantharama Theertham Narasimha Theertham and Serbha theertham. Another list includes the following : Hanuman Theertham, Lakshmana Theertham, Lakshmi Therrtham, Narayana Theertham, Rishi Theertham, and Seetharam Theertham.

Namakkal - Tourist Information

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