Tiruvannamalai Girivalam

     Girivalam, spiritual festival observed on every full moon day at Tiruvannamalai for sacred Mountain Annamalai.  In tamil language, “Giri” means mountain and “Valam” means circumambulation.  People with spiritual seeking choose to walk around the mountain and worship Arunachala temple of Tiruvannamalai on pounami day and this is called Girivalam.

     Girivalam is connected to the hill Annamalai considered as a deity ad god Shiva temple called Arunachaleswarar an Tamil ancient massive shrine found at the bottom of the Thiruvannamalai hill.  This Arunachaleswarar temple was named after “the mountain of fire”.  The God who lives there also called by the same name.  In Sanskrit “Arunam” stands for fire with red color, “asalam” can be read as “malai” or hill. In fact the mountain is red in color, stand high for 2668 feet with 16 KM in diameter (approximately). During the Girivalam circling, people visit eight Siva lingams located around the Arunachala Mountain. Each lingam represent one direction, if you watch closely Tiruvannamalai town itself closely Tiruvannamalai town itself structured around this lingams in octagonal dimension. Each lingam has its own name Indra Lingam, Agni Lingam, Yama Lingam, Niruthi Lingam, Varuna Lingam, Vayu Lingam, Kubera Lingam and Esanya Lingam.

     Indian spiritual history has it that even today a number of siddhars are living on the hill. During the full moon Maha Girivalam (Giri Valam) or Deepam festival day of Karthigai month, it siddhars movement would be there and the whole atmosphere would be filled with perfumes of herbal plants,  This will provide peace of fact that Tiruvannamalai girivalam pulls 1,00,000 of devotees to circumambulate the Arunachala mountain and obtain seeken wish comes true by praying to Siva circumambulation path has been well maintained with rows of sodium lights around the hill.  People can walk round the clock 24 hours a day without any devotees experience, Tiruvannamalai town government has established many road side stores as well as strict vigilant Police patrol around the mountain.