Aarupadai Veedu - Six Abodes Of Lord Muruga

Lord Muruga, the God of Beauty and Gnan, is prominent God of Hinduism. He is mainly celebrated by Tamilians as God of kurinji land which means hills and area adjacent to hills. He is the younger son of Lord Shiva and the brother of Lord Vinayaka. Lord Kanthan, Lord Shiva KUmar, Lord Senthil, Lord Kumaran, Lord Saravanan, Lord Dhandayuthapani, Lord Subramanyam, Lord Shanmugam, Lord Palaniyandavar and Lord Swaminathan are some of the other names of this Great God. In some places it is shown as He is having six faces and twelve hands. For this reason, he has been also called as Lord Arumugam. In tamil Arumugam means one who has six faces. Being the God of Tamilians He has been celebrated in almost all parts of Tamil Nadu. The bird Peacock is vehicle of Lord Muruga and we can find an idol of peacock infront of him.

There is a great story telling about the incarnation of Lord Muruga. In legend it is told that once Devas had been ill-treated and imprisoned by the demon Soora Padman and his brothers. And the demons had been the challenge to the Devas as no one from their side had power to kill them. So, all of them went to Lord Shiva's home for praying Him to get the solution. On hearing their problem Lord Shiva decided to find a solution. In Hinduism it is well known that Lord Shiva has another important eye on His forehead. He opened His forehead eye and used His all power to create Six Great Fire Sparks emitting heat energy. Now once again Devas started to be suffering from the heat energy came from that fire sparks. So all of them ran again to Lord Shiva to get His grace. Lord Shiva called Lord Agni(God of Fire) and Lord Vayu(God of Air) to carry those great fire sparks. But, fire sparks were so powerful that those Gods could not get near them. God Shiva gave power to carry them and ordered to drop them in the holy river Ganges. After dropping the sparks, the whole river Ganges shrank to a small stream. Then the fire sparks had been cooled down and changed to six beautiful babies and they were lying on six beautiful lotus flowers. Lord Shiva arranged six beautiful maidens called 'Karthigai Pengal'(Women of Karthiga) to look after the babies. When the babies attained a certain age Lord Shiva blessed them and made them as one person (i.e.) God Muruga. Then Lord Shiva asked His son Lord Muruga to proceed to the world of Devas on His mission of subduing the demons and freeing the Devas from their cruel bondage with the demons. Devi Parvathi presented His son the weapon called Gnan and Sakthi Vel before starting the war against the demons. Lord Shiva arranged another person called Veera Bhagu to assist Lord Muruga in that war. In the war Lord Muruga killed all the demons and saved the Devas from them.

Lord Muruga has six famous abodes in Tamil Nadu which are collectively known as 'Arupadai Veedu'. In tamil 'Aru' means six and 'Veedu' means home. Every abode of Lord Muruga commemorating an event mentioned in the puranas(old stories).

His six abodes are:
Thiruparankundram,
Thiruchendur,
Palani,
Swamimalai,
Thiruthani and
Palamuthircholai.