Vol 01.002 4. Tirumalirum cholai Part 1 of 24

4. TIRUMALIRUM CHOLAI - Part 1 of 24
Sampath Rengarajan

This kshEthram or (temple) thalapurAnAm and the 121 pAsurams (4 th largest mo of pAsurams on any single temple) will be discussed by me with my limited knowledge in 24 parts. AdisEshan has "1000" heads and it is believed that adisEshan literally "lives" here. Aazhwar pAsuram confirms this belief. In an unique fashion this hill also houses "1000" other things along with "1000" headed adisEshan. These other contents of the hill is also covered by periaazhwar in his pAsuram. Azhagar malai or Azhagar hills is 10 miles wide in east west direction and is about "1000" feet high. This hill is also having numerous sunai's or mini water fillets and hosts countless varieties of botanical specimens and flowers. Besides the hills has rare herbal plants (In South India few of the hills have rare herbal plants that "chithars" use for their miracle cures. I would request you all to recall the recent demo of Ramar pillai during 2 nd week of sept 1996, in IIT Madras in presence of several scientists and Indian Govt Rep for transportaion and alternate fuel. He burnt certian herbs collected from some of these unidentified hills in south TN, and made gasoline fuel from it using some additives. The fuel was tested to be more economical and rich in contents when tested in several labs.). This hill is also considered to be cool as similar to kodaikaNal and other popular hill stations in Tamil Nadu. Since "1000" headed adisEshan is considered to live here, it seems this hill also hosts "1000" varieties of such botanical specimen and 1000 varieties of flowers and 1000 such water fillets or sunais. Azhwar captures this in his pasuram as

aayiram thOL parapppi mudiyaayiram minnil aga aayiram painthalaiya anatha sayanan aaLum malai aayiram yaarugaLun chunaikaL palavaairamum aayiram poompozhilumudai maalirunchOlaiyatheE

"aayiram thOL parapppi mudiyaayiram minnil" - with "1000" shoulders spread out and thousand crowns glittering

aga aayiram painthalaiya anatha sayanan aaLum malai - this malai or hills is ruled by "1000" head anathasayanan

aayiram yaarugaLun chunaikaL palavaairamum - with "1000" rivers and several "1000" sunai's or water fillets aayiram poompozhilumudai maalirunchOlaiyatheE - with 1000 variety of flowers this thirumAlirunchOlai is filled with.

ayiramthalai anathasayanan samEthara Sri Sundaravallli Sriparamswami thiruvadikaLE saranam
Sampath Rengarajan