Palani
| Palani பழனி |
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| State : |
 India
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| State : | Tamil Nadu | ||
| District : | Dindigul | ||
| Sub-district : | Palani | ||
| Location : | 10 ° 27 ' N , 77 ° 31' E | ||
| Residents : | 70,467 (2011) | ||
Palani ( Tamil : பழனி Paḻaṉi [ ˈpaɻəni ]; earlier English Palni ) is a city in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu . Palani is an important pilgrimage site of the Hindu god Murugan, who is popular in Tamil Nadu, and one of the most important pilgrimage destinations in South India with around four million visitors a year. The population of Palanis is around 70,000 (2011 census).
Geography and traffic
Palani is located in the Dindigul district in western Tamil Nadu. The city is the administrative seat of the Taluk (sub-district) Palani. The next largest city is the district capital Dindigul around 60 kilometers to the east. Madurai , the most important city of South Tamil Nadu, is 120 kilometers southeast, to Chennai (Madras), the capital of Tamil Nadu, it is 480 kilometers. The city is located in the lowlands at the foot of the Palani Mountains , an up to 2500 meter high foothill of the Western Ghats , which begins south of Palani.
In Palani, the two hills Sivagiri and Sakthigiri rise from the flat surroundings. The first is the Murugan sanctuary of Palani. The Shanmuganadi River, a tributary of the Amaravathi, flows about two kilometers west of the city .
National Highway 209 runs through Palani from Dindigul via Coimbatore to Bangalore . The city is connected to the railway network via the Dindigul-Coimbatore railway line. The route is currently being converted to broad gauge .
population
85 percent of the population of Palani are Hindus , 12 percent are Muslims and 2 percent are Christians . As in all of Tamil Nadu, the main language is Tamil, which is spoken by 93 percent of the population as their mother tongue. 5 percent speak Telugu .
Religious meaning
Under the name Tiruvavinankudi , Palani is one of six pilgrimage sites ( Arupadaividu ) which are dedicated to the Hindu god Murugan (Skanda). While this god plays practically no role in the practice of faith in northern India, he is one of the most popular deities among the Tamils under the name Murugan . The six pilgrimage sites are each associated with different aspects of Murugan's mythology. In Palani, Murugan is revered in his form as a dandayudhapani (staff bearer) and is depicted as a young ascetic with a stick, loincloth and shaved head. The Murugan Temple of Palani is located on the top of Mount Sivagiri. At its center is an image of a god Murugan, which, unlike usual, is not made of stone, but is said to consist of an amalgam of nine metals. A steep ascent leads to the hill, but the summit can now also be reached by cable car.
According to the myth, Shiva is said to have promised his sons Murugan and Ganesha that whoever would go around the world first would receive the fruit of wisdom as a reward. Murugan set out to go around the world, but Ganesha once stepped around his parents Shiva and Parvati and decided that since they contained the entire cosmos, he had thus circled the world. Shiva and Parvati were delighted with Ganesha's wisdom and gave him the fruit. Angry about this decision, Murugan left his parents and settled at the foot of Mount Sivagiri . It was there that Shiva and Parvati, who had set out to find Murugan, found him. Shiva tried to appease him by saying that the fruit that Ganesha received was not the fruit of wisdom, but that he was the fruit ( paḻam nī "you are the fruit"). Hence the name of the place Palani .
As the most important of the six pilgrimage sites in Murugan, Palani is one of the largest Hindu pilgrimage sites in Tamil Nadu and, along with Tirupati and Sabarimala, one of the most important in all of southern India. In 2011, Palani had 5.8 million visitors. An estimated 500,000 pilgrims flock to Palani for the ten-day Thaipusam festival in January / February alone .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Census of India 2011.
- ^ Census of India 2011: C-1 Population By Religious Community. Tamil Nadu.
- ↑ Census of India 2001: C-16 City: Population by Mother Tongue (Tamil Nadu), accessed under Tabulations Plan of Census Year - 2001 .
- ^ The Hindu, March 1, 2012: "State attracted over 14 crore tourists during 2011".
- ↑ The Hindu : Pilgrims throng Palani for temple festival, January 18, 2008. ( Memento of the original from March 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
