A Hillock, Where Lord Muruga Picked His Pearl

As seen in numerous pieces of classical Tamil literature, ancient Tamils of the Kurinji (hilly tract) worshipped Lord Muruga, who was none but the chieftain of hills. Nonetheless, he was later incorporated in Hinduism as the younger brother of the elephant God Ganesha, whose name is hardly found in any piece of classical Tamil literature. Though Lord Muruga is adored nowadays by different names such as Karthikeya, Kandha, Arumuga, and so on, worshipping him in the traditional way as the chieftain of hills still continues in the Kongu region, as traced from the history of Muthu Malai Murugan Temple, a small shrine on a hillock at Muthugoundenur near Kinathukadavu.

Despite man’s fear, imagination and belief being the elements behind the ‘birth’ of Gods on earth, strange mythologies were later invented by religions in order to incorporate the people’s deities into their pantheon. And so is the story of the Muthu Malai Murugan. 

Legend has it that the deity, while flying on his ‘peacock vehicle’ a pearl from his crown fell on a hill’s top. As he alighted on the hillock to pick the pearl, the mountain appropriately came to be called as ‘Muthu Malai’ with ‘Pearl’ meaning ‘Muthu’. However, an oral tradition in the villages surrounding the shrine maintains that Lord Muruga, several decades ago, repeatedly appeared in an old woman’s dream and told her that he was staying on the hill in the shade of three Karai plants (Canthium parviflorum).

As the poor old woman informed her strange dream to the villagers, they climbed up the hillock and said to have found the three Karai plants as the deity described to her in the dream. As a result, the villagers built a small temple at the spot.

The beautiful hill shrine, which stands amidst the sylvan surroundings, is now maintained by Muthumalai Narpani Trust, founded by late Gopalakrishnan, the chairman of Gopal Karpooram, a camphor manufacturing company in Coimbatore. The temple, whose Poojas are performed only by the traditional non-Brahmin Pandaram priests, has also been on the mission for the welfare of the surrounding villages.

“As the villages surrounding the shrine still have a number of poverty-stricken elderly people, who eke out a living by toiling hard on agricultural fields, the temple’s trust provides them free woolen blankets every year” 

Though Muthu Malai is a holy shrine of Lord Muruga, it is surprising that the temple also stands as a symbol of religious harmony. 

Anbe Sivam, Anbe Allah, Anbe Yesu (Love is the synonym of Shiva, Allah, and Jesus)