Panchavati Panchamukha Anjaneyar Temple

Here’s the first of my posts on the temples that I visited recently.

We started at early morning with a beautiful sunrise and excellent music giving us company.

Eppadi irundha beautiful golden-yellow sun ippadi aaidthu: 😛



The branches of trees on both sides of the road caressing each other to form an arch kind of thing over the road:

We first stopped over at Panchamukha Anjaneyar Temple at Panchavati, in the Tindivanam-Pondicherry Road.

We reached the temple at around 8 am. As we entered the temple, the two imposing tall doors of the Anjaneyar sannidhi were closed. All other sanctum/sannidhis were closed too since they were doing alankaram for all the deities at that time. We had to wait for more than half an hour before the doors to the sannidhis were opened. Being a weekday morning, very few people were there in the temple.

The entire story of Ramayana has been depicted here with paintings of the important incidents in order, at the top on the walls on both sides in front of the Anjaneyar sannidhi. Were those glass paintings or were those, paintings framed in glass frames? I guess those paintings will be lighted up from inside in the evenings. At least that’s how they appeared to be, when I saw the temple from outside on an evening, during our return journey to Madras. But am not sure about it though.

The idol of Panchamukha Anjaneyar here is 36-feet tall! But I felt that the lotus-base, on which Anjaneyar is standing, itself was way too tall and the Anjaneyar didn’t appear as tall as the 32-feet Anjaneyar at Nanganallur. When the doors opened, alankaram was still in progress and we saw them using lifts to put a garland on Anjaneyar! While only the four faces of Anjaneyar are visible from the front, you can see the fifth face, which is on the back-side of the head, from a small glass window on the back-side wall, while doing pradakshiNam. In front of the Anjaneyar sannidhi, there is a vessel filled with water which has a floating stone that was used by Lord Ram’s Vaanar Sena to build the bridge to Lanka.

Apart from Anjaneyar, the other sannidhis in this temple are: a piLLaiyaar sannidhi that has a huge idol of PiLLaiyaar and a rAmar sannidhi where idols of Rama and Sita along with Bharata, Shatrugna, Lakshmana, Hanuman, Jambavan, Vibhishana, Angada, Sugreeva, Garuda(?), etc. are present. Apart from these, one other sannidhi, the deity in which we were not sure of, was there.

We got a yummy Chakkara Pongal with lots of Cashew nuts and raisins as prasadam. The Chakkara Pongal was cold though!

Do try to visit this temple the next time you go to Pondicherry, in case you have not gone there before.

25 thoughts on “Panchavati Panchamukha Anjaneyar Temple

  1. Sriram

    the pictures are simply spectacular! i snapped few at the thanjavur temple late in the evening 3 years ago & it was one of the most sublime time/evenings ever – being a native of mayavaram maybe i’m biased but its truly one of the most beautiful places in T.Nadu – some temples really look frozen in time & transports one back 1000s of years (esp medha dakshinamurthy & another one that my paati used to call the nandanar temple)

    Reply
  2. Aparna

    Sriram,
    Thank you 🙂 Oh the temple late in the evening must have looked beautiful.
    Very true. I like the Medha Dakshinamurthy temple too. Nandanar temple? Are you referring to the Tiruungoor temple by any chance?

    Arun,
    Thank you! Yes it was

    Reply
  3. Sami

    That loney pic is nice !
    Also where to take left and right in the main road are missing in the post ! 🙂 You could have stopped car and took the photograph of the tree from the middle of the road ! would have got a great pic ! Though these pics are good ! considering that these are taken from mobile !

    Reply
  4. Aparna

    Sami,
    Thanks. I know but I just wanted to try how good/bad the pics come out when taken from moving car 🙂 These were taken with my camera only. Not mobile!
    >Also where to take left and right in the main road are missing in the post !
    It’s missing because you need not take any right or left. The temple is there on the main road itself 🙂

    Reply
  5. asin

    the temple was a great surprice to me!!!!!!!!!
    As I went on my birthday,I felt even more lucky and excited.
    it is a place to be visited by all Indians!!!!(ATLEAST)

    Reply
  6. Krishna Kumar.S

    The place has been noted. I would visit it next time. Generally, I use trains/bus as transport as I haven’t got a vehicle on my own. Nice set of pics. The report was to the point. I have the habit of writing trip reports which are very long !!

    Reply
  7. Sai

    Aparna,

    I am planning to visit tomorrow. Which route did you take – Chennai->Dindivanam or Chennai->Pondy (via ECR)?

    Good Blogging:-)

    Thank you

    Reply
  8. mohan

    Hi every one can anyone tell me the exact kilometers from chennai to panchavati anjeneyar temple and any special pooja archana things like that any special day etc

    Reply
  9. raghu neel

    hey ,
    recently i have been their and place is really calm , and the statue was really really superb , i love the place , more over its rear to find such place ,

    Reply
  10. R.VENUGOPAL

    dear sir,
    thanks for the information and i shall be visiting with my family tomorrow
    we plan to visit pondicherry tomorrow and it came as a surprise to me to open the
    network and see these since my wife sisters daughter mala told me to visit this
    temple and she gave this information just before our departure and is a wonderful
    thing for me being a devotee of anjaneya
    with regards
    venugopal a
    after seeing the temple i shall make my comments

    Reply
  11. kesari

    hi aparna ji….i do hav visited this temple…its really awesome to hav darshanam here..i went in the evening..unfortunately it was showering…though i enjoyed..

    Reply
  12. Saravanan

    Hi,

    I saw this blog and want to say that i visited Panchavati temple yesterday. To all the people who are new to the place ( i was a newcomer y’day) , It is situated about 15 km in the Pondy – Tindivanam road, nearer to pondy. So people who are planning for sightseeing trip to pondy can include this in their chart. For people who are planning to see jus the temple from chennai, they can take the tindivanam – pondy road. The temple is maintained by private, is quite remarkable. Shud see place.

    Reply
  13. Sriram, Doha

    I just recall those days in 2004-05, when the temple was being constructed. I had visited three four times then. Lord Anjaneya was standing.. with such a majestic appearance in the open space .. OOfff… its really awesome. Its one of the things which never will go out from my memory.

    Reply
  14. D.S.Murty

    Two days back i visited the temple while going to Pondy. Magnificent. A stone from Rama sethu was kept in a huge vessel in water. The stone weighs about 14 kgs and still floats in water. After coming back, while googling for more about the temple i found your blog. Thanks for the nice information. (also wanted to share about Ramasethu : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam%27s_Bridge )

    Reply
  15. Ravichandran C

    Panchavadi Anjaneyar temple is a one of the important temple to visit. It is on the way to Pondy-Tindivanam route. This place is very peaceful and if anybody reaches this temple by 12 noon, you will be given free lunch by this koil trust. You can take rest at temple premises. Near to this temple, Moratandi Saneeswara baghawan temple is there. You have to visit this temple also. All nine navagrahas are located in this temple.Sri Preethanga temple also located near to this temple. Visit these temples during morning time. Have a nice darshan and get the grace of God. Ravichandran C from chidambaram.

    Reply
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