The Arunachala Puranam is the sthala purana of Tiruvannamalai. It is a work that brings together all the legends relating to Tiruvannamalai. The myths and legends they contain form part of an unbroken tradition elaborated, embroidered, and transformed over several millennia, beginning with the Vedas and the Vedic commentaries. Ramana Maharshi teaches us that the world is simply the illusory play of mind, projected upon the unmoving screen of consciousness. (The strange, wonderful world of the Puranas is, in its own way, no less an illustration of this truth.)

The main story unfolds against the background of epic themes such as the creation of the universe and the battles for supremacy between the gods themselves and the gods and their enemies, the asuras. Two major themes are interwoven: the first is the greatness of the Arunachala sthala and the story of how the mountain Arunachala first manifested as a clossal of fire whose top and bottom could not be found to settle a quarrel between Brahma and Vishnu; and the second is the story of how Siva’s consort Parvati came to merge with Lord Siva as half of himself.

The Tamil Arunachala Puranam was composed in the 17th century by Saiva Ellappa Navalar, thought to have lived in the reign of the Tamil king Tirumalai Nayakar, during 1623–1659. The author, in verses 21 and 514, cites as the source for its first 7 chapters the Rudra Samhita (514), or the Kodi Rudra Samhita (21) of the Siva Purana.

Devaraja Mudaliar’s Day by Day with Bhagavan, dt. 12.12.1945, Afternoon: As I was entering the hall about 2–50 p.m., Bhagavan was reading out from the Tamil Arunachala Puranam the verses in which it is said that Gauri, after crossing the several streets of Arunachalam, reached Gautama’s Asramam. When Bhagavan came to the verses dealing with Gautama’s joy at Gauri’s coming to his Asramam, he could not go on, for tears filled his eyes and emotion choked his voice. So he laid aside the book.

In 2000, Sri Ramanasramam published the Tamil Arunachala Puranam of Saiva Ellappa Navalar with paraphrases, and the book has been reprinted many times. (The Tamil translation of the Sanskrit Arunachala Mahatmya, by Munagala Venkataramiah, the compiler of Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, has also been reprinted many times since its first publication in 1955.) In 1999, Sri Ramanasramam published The Glory of Arunachala by M. C. Subramanian, which had been serialized in The Mountain Path. The Tamil Arunachala Puranam has been translated in English by Robert Butler, an ardent devotee of Bhagavan Ramana. It was also published in the Mountain Path, and he has now offered it to Sri Ramanasramam for publication.

J.Jayaraman – Sri Ramansramam chief Librarian, who heard the glories of the Tamil Arunachala Puranam many times, from old Ashramite of Kunju Swami – close devotee of Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi from 1920 has chanted, the entire 659 Tamil Poems of Saiva Ellappa Navalar, and the same is uploaded now in audio form.

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