Pazhamuthir Cholai Arupadai Veedu

42year old Muthu Kumar Gurukal has been visiting the Arupadai Veedu Murugan temple in Pazhamuthir Cholai right from the time he was a young boy way back in the 1980s. He would often accompany his Thatha Karthikeya Gurukal on the long uphill path to the temple watching him performing the pooja with great devotion.

His Thatha had joined the temple in the 1960s and performed service for over three decades. A week after the now popular and grand Kanda Sashti Utsavam, Muthu Kumar Gurukal recounts the tales around the annual Sashti that his Thatha had narrated to him during his school days “My Thatha would carry all the pooja items on his head ahead of Kanda Sashti Utsavam and walk all the way from his quarters in Azhagar Koil to Pazha Muthir Cholai at a time where there was no proper road and the entire hill was inhabited by wild animals. He also doubled up as the cook at the madapalli. There were not too many devotees in those time, very minimal thattu kaasu and it was financially very challenging for the family in that phase.”

While he saw the financial challenges that his thatha and appa faced, it would have been normal for Muthu Kumar Gurukal to have taken the academics route to gain entry into the corporate world like many of his contemporaries but right from a young age his mind had been directed towards a devotional way of life and continuing the archaka service that he saw the two of them carry out during his childhood with great sincerity. 

He quit academics after class VIII in the mid 1990s and joined the Veda Agama Patshala in Allur (Trichy) “I never visualised a college life or moving away from temple service to work in a company. The thought had been instilled in my mind at an early age that service at this Arupadai Veedu should be my way of life and I had no second thoughts on this.”

Soon after his Patshala education, at the turn of the century, he joined his appa in archaka service at Pazha Muthir Cholai.

Contrary to what is the practice in most HR & CE temples now, Muthu Kumar Gurukal does not take a fixed monthly salary and continues the historical practice at Pazha Muthir Cholai. He has a percentage share in archanai, alankaram, abhisekam and ticket collection, in addition to the thattu kaasu.

After the Kumbabhisekam in 2014, fortunes have changed dramatically at the temple and with the gaining popularity of Aru Padai Veedu, much like Divya Desams and Paadal Petra Sthalam, devotees have been thronging Pazha Muthir Cholai in large numbers.

Muthu Kumar Gurukal says that even on normal days, the tourists have been visiting in good numbers so much so that he now has full time assistants for the sannidhis to support him daily as well as during the utsavams, a far cry from the decades when his thatha just had two watchmen for company. Over the last decade or so, there has also been a full time paricharaka at the madapalli to take care of the Neivedyam unlike the dark decades of the second half of the 20th century when Karthikeya Gurukal and later his son had to double up both as the priest and the cook at the madapalli.

Vaikasi Visakam, Aadi Karthigai, Kanda Sashti, Thai Poosam are all celebrated in a grand way with abisekam, alankaram and purapadu. 

The Murugan temple in Pazha Muthir Cholai is also symbolic of the Saivite Vaishnavite unity as was seen last week on the Dwadashi day in Aippasi when Sundararaja Perumal from Azhagar Koil made his way to Noopura Gangai for Thailakkappu and Neeraattam utsavam. The priests from the Murugan temple climbed the steep hilly path to present flower garland to Perumal on his way to Noopura Gangai.

While the Azhvaars referred to the Perumal’s presence in Maaliruncholai Malai and the greatness of this hill (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2015/09/thiru-maliruncholai-periyazhvar.html), Saivite Poets referred to the presence of Murugan at Pazha Muthir Cholai Malai. It was here that he came to rest after slaying the asuras in Tirchendur. Silambaru, the sacred falls, that Sundararaja Perumal visits every year in Aippasi, is just a couple of hundred yards from Pazha Muthir Cholai temple (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2024/11/azhagar-koil-noopura-ganga-aippasi.html). Arunagirinathar has sung 15 verses of praise of the Lord of Pazha Muthir Cholai. He refers to Solai Malai being abound with mansions and mandapams and gopurams giving an indication that this would have been a beautiful temple town with people living a wealthy life. 

Maliruncholai Malai also finds a reference in the historic Paripatal (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2015/09/paripatal-on-vishnu.html).

Muthu Kumar Gurukal is delighted that he has been presented with an opportunity to perform archaka service at this abode of Lord Muruga. He says that the great devotion with which his thatha and appa performed service at this temple in those dark decades is now paying off with the revival of this historical temple and that the Lord has given him everything he could have hoped for in this life. As with many priests of this generation, he has had a late marriage and is hoping that he would be blessed with a son to continue the archaka service at Pazha Muthir Cholai.

The temple is open from 6.30am to 7pm on all days. A bus plies every 15minutes or so from Azhagar Koil to Pazha Muthir Cholai (ticket Rs. 10).

Pazha Muthir Cholai is about 2 kms uphill from Azhagar Koil Divya Desam