Arunachaleshwara swamy temple

  • Month of travel: August 2023
  • Mode of Ride: Car
  • Total distance from Kanchipuram(KMs): 117
  • Iternary: 2 day

Continuing the journey from Kanchipuram 🎢, the next destination was Thiruvannamalai🚗. We left Kanchipuram after breakfast 🍵 at 8:45 AM and reached Thiruvannamalai Arunchaleshwara Swamy temple Raja Gopuram at 11:15 PM.

We were looking for the car parking as the place was crowded with pilgrims, asked a few people around we got to know the parking was 1 km away from the temple. A few of us offboarded near the temple, and we went to park the vehicle, but the local people were kind enough 🙂 and said to park in front of their home which was 500m away from the temple.

Arunchaleshwara temple - One of the Pancha buta lingams

  • Time of travel: Evening
  • Hours spent: 1:15 mins

We planned to take darshan of Arunchaleshwara Swamy, but the entrance at East Raja Gopuram was closed due to aarti & bhog timings We purchased coconut 🥥, flowers 💮, Bilwapatri from one of the local shopkeepers and left our footwear there and continued to the north entrance, as the entrance is open.

The sun ☀ was on top, the tar roads stored all the heat, and traveling barefoot was challenging, but continued by chanting om namah Shivaya.

On arrival at the north entrance, there were special darshan tickets 🎫 available, and we got them and continued entering the temple premises in the queue, due to north facing the breeze 🍃 giving us a lot of relief. At some junctions in the queue people were entering haphazardly it was a little bit difficult to form a queue.
In 45 mins ⏲, we took darshan of arunchaleshwara Swamy and a few more gods on the same premises.

After the darshan, we were a bit relieved and feeling of achievement that we took darshan of arunchaleshwara Swamy.
Due to the scorching heat ☀, we thought to drink some cool refreshments 🍹and then for lunch 🍚.
We continued to look for some hotels and finally reached a restaurant. 🏚

Lunch 🍽

  • Hours spent: 40 mins
  • Experience: ★ ★ ★ ★



We found a restaurant, and the ambiance was very good 😘. This is one of the best restaurants I have ever visited. The owner was passionate about her work. It is evident when you enter the restaurant. We ordered food and discussed plans to open a similar theme-based restaurant in the future. The food tasted good.

Giri pradakshina




Originally, the plan was to do 14KM giri pradakshina around the hill by walking ⛰, due to an uncertain plan change at Kanchipuram and arrive at this temple at 11:30, followed by darshan of 1:30 mins. We decided to do giri pradakshina by car and after performing the pradakshina. We headed back to Bengaluru around 5:15 PM and reached home at 9:30 PM

If I go to Arunchalam again, I have to Giri Pradakshina on a walk. It is one beautiful experience one can get.