Masani Amman Temple, Anaimalai

Local tradition connects the temple with a story from the Sangam age. According to the legend given by Wikipedia and Dinamalar, a king named Nannan owned a mango tree by the river and forbade anyone to touch its fruit. A young woman who ate a mango that had fallen into the water was put to death on his orders. The people built a memorial for her, made a reclining image of her, and in time she came to be worshipped as the guardian goddess of the place. Wikipedia adds that the Sangam anthology Kurunthokai calls Nannan 'the one who killed a woman'.

A second legend recorded by Dinamalar says that Rama, on his way to Lanka to rescue Sita, made an image of the Goddess from the sand of the cremation ground here and worshipped it in the reclining form. Dinamalar says the name Anaimalai, 'elephant hill', comes from the elephants once found in the area, and that the Sangam work Pathitruppathu calls the place Umbarkadu. The temple's age is not documented: Dinamalar estimates it at 1,000 to 2,000 years.

Today the temple is administered by the HR&CE Department. The Hindu reported on 18 December 2024 that 28 kg 906 g of unused gold offerings from the temple had been melted and invested in a gold deposit with the State Bank of India at Pollachi, in the presence of the HR&CE Minister, to generate income for the temple.

Architecture and sacred features

The temple is built in the South Indian (Dravidian) style, with a gopuram at the entrance, according to Incredible India and Wikipedia. Dinamalar lists shrines around the corridor for Pechi, Durga, Mahishasuramardini, the Saptha Mathas (seven mother goddesses), Vinayaka, Karupparayar, Bhuvaneswari and Bhairava.