Palani (or Pazhani) is a town and a municipality in Dindigul district, Tamil Nadu, located about 100 kilometres (62 mi) north-west of Madurai, 100 kilometres (62 mi) South-east of Coimbatore, and 60 kilometres (37 mi) west of Dindigul. The Palani Murugan Temple dedicated to Hindu war God Kartikeya is situated on a hill overlooking the town.
According to Hindu mythology, "Sage Narada once visited the celestial court of Lord Shiva at Mount Kailash to present to Him a fruit, the gyana-pazham (literally, the fruit of knowledge), that held in it the elixir of wisdom. Upon Lord Shiva expressing his intention of dividing the fruit between his two sons, Ganesha and Karthikeya, the sage counselled against cutting it. He decided to award it to whomever of his two sons first circled the world thrice. Accepting the challenge, Lord Karthikeya started his journey around the globe on his mount peacock. However, Ganesha, who surmised that the world was no more than his parents Shiva and Shakti combined, circumnambulated them".[2] Pleased with their son's discernment, Lord Shiva awarded the fruit to Lord Ganesha. When Kartikeya returned, he was furious to learn that his efforts had been in vain. He left Kailash and took up his abode in Palani hills in South India. It is believed that Karthikeya felt the need to get matured from boyhood and hence chose to remain as a hermit and discarded all his robes and ornaments. He went into meditation to know about himself.
Jan 20, 2018: It was a call from Rajith which lead way to this trip of mine. We decided to take road route to Palani on Jan 26 early morning. I booked my return flight ticket for Jan 26 night.
Jan 26: We started from my home at Bannerghata road around 0345Hrs.
Stopped at Sri Saravana Bhavan's Restaurant, Salem around 0700 Hrs for breakfast. Awesome food as always. This is the place we stop every time we go to Shabarimala or any location in this route.
Reached Pazhani town by 1030Hrs . Rajith contact met us near the temple. We took the cable car to reach the top. At 1200Hrs we were in the Temple at hill top. By the time we reached the temple, it was time for pooja. We were seated in the Mandapa just in front of the sanctum sanctorum. We were fortunate to witness a 40 min pooja which included Mangalarthi and Abhishekams. It was a treat for the eyes. Felt really blessed.
After the pooja, we got prasadam from the head priest . Drank the abhishekam milk and decided to return. It was around 0115 PM we reached back near the cable car return pick up area. I was just lucky to get in to the last cable car service. It supposed to be closing at 1.30. Rajith was not able to get the cable car and he had to take the train and come down.
Around 1400Hrs we reached back at our parking spot. Had the anna prasadam we got from pooja and started back.
We had our lunch at SP Hotel in Pollachi town. A reasonable hotel. Since we had reached around 3.30pm it was lunch closing time and nothing much was available.
The roads from Pazhani to Coimbatore is single lane and repair work was going on. Reached Coimbatore at around 1730Hrs.
Got freshened up in a hotel enroute . Had dinner and we reached Coimbatore airport by 1945 Hrs.
