History of Arunachaleswarar Temple

Timeline

Period	What happened
7th century CE	The Shaiva saints Appar and Thirugnana Sambandar sing of Annamalai in the Tevaram hymns
9th century CE	Manikkavasagar composes the Tiruvempavai at Tiruvannamalai (tradition, recorded on Wikipedia). Present masonry dates from the Chola period
Around 1318 CE	Vallala Maharaja Gopuram, named after the Hoysala king Veera Ballala III (date from the official temple website)
1328 CE	The Hoysalas make Tiruvannamalai a capital (Wikipedia)
1336–1570 CE	Vijayanagara rule; more than a hundred inscriptions from the Sangama, Saluva and Tuluva dynasties
15th century	Arunagirinathar, born in Tiruvannamalai, composes the Thiruppugazh
1513–1514 CE	Eastern Rajagopuram credited to Krishnadevaraya by the official temple website
16th–17th century	Thanjavur Nayaks extend the outer complex; Sevappa Nayak is linked with the Rajagopuram’s completion
1896–1950	Ramana Maharshi lives at the temple and on the hill, bringing worldwide attention

Poets and saints in the literary record

Tiruvannamalai is a Paadal Petra Sthalam, one of the Shiva temples praised in the Tevaram, the Tamil devotional canon. Appar and Thirugnana Sambandar both sang of Annamalai in the 7th century. That means the shrine was already an important place of worship before the present buildings existed.

Manikkavasagar is traditionally credited with composing the Tiruvempavai here. It is still sung in Tamil homes and temples every Margazhi. The 15th-century poet Arunagirinathar was born in Tiruvannamalai, and his Thiruppugazh hymns to Murugan are among the best-loved works of Tamil devotional poetry. The temple’s own history page lists later works that celebrate the temple, including the Arunachala Puranam of Ellappa Navalar, the Arunai Kalambakam and the Sonasaila Malai.

The poets are covered in more depth in the blog essay The poets of Arunachala.

Builders across a thousand years

The temple grew outward. Each dynasty added a new enclosure around the older core, which is why the towers get taller as you walk from the sanctum out to the street.

Cholas

The present masonry structure dates from the Chola period, around the 9th century CE. Chola-era inscriptions record gifts of land, cattle and gold for lamps and daily worship. The official temple records attribute the Rishi Gopuram to the Chola period.

Hoysalas

In the 14th century the Hoysala king Veera Ballala III (Vallala Maharaja in Tamil) ruled from Tiruvannamalai. The official website dates the Vallala Maharaja Gopuram to around 1318. His statue stands in the fourth prakaram.

Vijayanagara

Under the Vijayanagara empire the temple received major endowments. Wikipedia lists 48 inscriptions from the Sangama dynasty (1336–1485), 2 from the Saluva and 55 from the Tuluva dynasty (1491–1570). The thousand-pillared hall is from the late Vijayanagara period. The official website credits the eastern Rajagopuram to Krishnadevaraya (1513–1514 CE).

Thanjavur Nayaks

The Nayaks of Thanjavur completed and extended much of the outer complex. Accounts summarised on Wikipedia say the Rajagopuram, begun under Krishnadevaraya, was completed by Sevappa Nayak. Where sources differ like this, we give both.

Inscriptions

The Tiruvannamalai District Administration counts about 450 stone inscriptions at the temple, along with more than a thousand sculptures. Written in Tamil and Grantha, they record endowments of land and livestock, lamps kept burning, and festivals funded by kings, officials, merchants and ordinary devotees. For historians they are a detailed record of medieval Tamil society.

Modern times

The temple is administered by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department of the Government of Tamil Nadu, which publishes official information at annamalaiyar.hrce.tn.gov.in.

In 1896 a sixteen-year-old named Venkataraman arrived in Tiruvannamalai. According to his biographers, he spent his first weeks in and around the thousand-pillared hall and the Pathala Lingam vault. He became known as Ramana Maharshi, and he lived at Arunachala until his death in 1950. His presence brought seekers from around the world, a story told on Ramana Maharshi and Arunachala.