The available history of Marudhamalai dates back to the 12th century AD from the texts of two inscriptions found at the Thirumurugan Poondi temple near Avinashi.
Thai Pooosam, a special day for worshiping the Tamil God Lord Muruga has just gone past. The city witnessed thousands of devotees thronging the hill abodes Marudhamalai and Palani to take part in the festival.
But few know the fact that the Sanskrit mantras usually chanted in the Lord’s abode were in praise of only Lord Subramania and not of Lord Muruga!
Moreover, bearing testimony to the fact that Muruga’s ‘elder brother’ Ganesa’ is an interpolation at a later period in the history of Tamil gods, there exists a sculpture dating back to the 11th century A.D, in which Siva, Sakthi, and their only child Skantha are seen.
The different names, by which the deity is called today as Kandha, Karthikeya, Saravana, Shanmuga, or Subramaniya were also only later developments of Lord Muruga, the chieftain of the hunting tribe in the hills.
As ancient Tamils divided their lands into five types based on their geographical factors Kurinji (mountainous region) Mullai (Forests), Marudham (Cropland), Neythal (Seashore), and Paalai (Dryland), Muruga, whose name means beauty, is depicted as the chieftain of Kurinji in several pieces of Sangam literature.
In Coimbatore, the deity was worshipped by the Irulars with their offerings of forest wealth like honey and millet, which they carried on their ‘Kavadis’ (A decorated pole of wood with an arch over it, carried on shoulders with offerings). They prayed to their God to get their vows fulfilled and sought his help to recover from ailments.
The tribal people had also the custom of sacrificing animals to Him, who was later made a Shaivite deity in Hinduism.
Though the hill deity is mentioned as Seyon or Muruga Kadavul in many of the pieces of Tamil literature, his unwritten history of being a hill chieftain, was suppressed and devotional writers of the Vedic religion later wove new legends on His birth and named Him differently as Kandha, Karthikeya, Saravana, Shanmuga or Subramaniya.
As per the Shaivite devotional literature Kanthapuranam, Lord Shiva gave birth to his son Subramaniya as six infants in the river Ganges, where six women, who came to take bath there, breastfed him.
Thus, the deity suitably came to be called ‘Arumuga’ or ‘Shanmuga’ (God of six faces).
Legend also has it that the creation of the God was after a prayer by other minor Gods to Lord Shiva in His abode at Kailash to kill the cruel Asuras - Surapadma and Singamuha, who repeatedly tortured them.
However, the available history of Marudhamalai dates back to the 12th century AD from the texts of two inscriptions found at the Thirumurugan Poondi temple near Avinashi.
The readings in the inscription also ensure that christening people with names after Marudhamalai was in vogue in Coimbatore even before 800 years, as the inscriptions record that a chieftain by the name ‘Marudhan Malayan’ had donated a valuable gold coin to Thirumurugan Poondi temple for the expenses of burning a ‘Sandhya Deepam’ in the abode.
Coimbatore’s relationship with Marudhamalai is also known from yesteryear parents’ christening their male children, not as Arumugam,Subramaniyan or Shanmugan, but ‘Maruthasalam’ in which ‘Marudham’ refers to a kind of a tree (Terminalia elliptica) and ‘Asalam’ a mountain. Thus, Maruthamalai got its name as it is a hill, which is rich in ‘Marutham’ trees.