Arunachaleshwarar temple's history is certainly unknown to many of us and the earliest known record of the temple is in the works of the great tamil poet Nakkirar of the third Tamil Sangam period. With his records, we can have a fair idea to trace the temple's origins back at least 2000 years. At that time, the temple might have been a simple wooden structure. The present royal gopuram ages approximately 1200 years. This has been determined from an inscription in the structure that was made during the reign of Chola kings who ruled in the ninth century A.D.
Adi Annamalai is the oldest temple around Arunachala. It was built hundreds of years before Arunachaleswarar Temple. he name of this Temple, Adi Annamalai means ‘first’ or ‘ancient’ Annamalai (Arunachaleshwarar).The legend of Adi Annamalai recounts that Brahma, after His dispute with Vishnu about the fiery column, made a lingam and went to the other side of the Hill to worship Shiva. Thus, this lingam is supposed to be the first, ancient and original lingam of Annamalai and hence the name Adi Annamalai.” This quote is from Arunachala Grace Blog. Adi Annamalai is located in the northern side of Arunachala hills and it is in the 'Girivalam' path. ( I shall discuss about GIRIVALAM in detail in my future post). You can see the Gopuram of Adi annamalai temple.
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