Saravana Polgai Temple, palani

All the sacred pools here are named duly after Muruga. And especially Saravana Poygai is very intimately connected with Muruga. We have to pay a fee to bathe in it. Just behind the temple of Avinankudi, there are two rows of six stucco niches. Let us go there. Paintings of Muruga being tended by six Karthikai maidens attract us. Here too we have to pay a fee and get in.

It is not a pool but only a deep well. It must have been a tank once. A square wall has been erected. In the south is the bathing ghats. Several steps are submerged in the water. People in the past got down through these steps and bathed. Now as that is not possible, the water is very clean. Coins have been strewn into the water. This is an old custom and persists. When people who travel by train cross the bridge of any sacred river, they throw coins into it, thinking it is a holy act.

In the south-east is the Kshatrice Chaurav madam, and in the south is a Vinayaga temple. Wherever there is a tank invariably there will be a Pilliar Koil on the bank and here where his brother Muruga happens to reside the elder brother is sure to abide. In the west side of the ghats is a tub like structure half filled with water and Deity.

Dhandapani stands in the middle. We can bathe him by our hands with the water around him. In the sanctum we can not enter and perform ablutions. But here there are no such restrictions. Here arrangements have been made to bathe separately. (Gents and Ladies) in rooms by bringing water through pumps. We bathe chanting “OM Saravana Bava”.