Masani Amman Temple

Getting there

• By air

  Coimbatore International Airport (CJB) is the nearest airport.

• By train

  Coimbatore Junction (CBE) is the nearest railway station.

• By road

  Pollachi is linked by National Highway 209 and several state highways, and its central bus stand serves government and private buses. The temple is about 24 km southwest of Pollachi.

Rules to know

• Devotees who offer red chillies must follow the correct procedure and know its spiritual consequences.
• Those who have offered red chillies must return within three months, or at a requested time, to perform abhiseka.

Why devotees come here

Masani Amman Temple stands in Anaimalai, Coimbatore district, about 24 km southwest of Pollachi. It is a major Hindu pilgrimage centre. Its deity is shown in a unique lying posture, about 15 ft from head to foot.

Masani Amman is a Hindu deity. Certain communities in Tamil Nadu worship her mainly as a family deity, or kuladevi, and devotees regard her as an avatar of Adi Parashakti. Her chief temple stands in Anaimalai, in the Pollachi area of Coimbatore district, on grassland where the Aliyar River meets the Uppar stream, near the Anaimalai Hills.

Legend says a woman was sentenced to death for eating one of Nannan's mangoes. Later, people believed she had given her life to save them, so they built a shrine to her. The stone where she was executed was later worshipped with ground red chillies. The deity was first called Masani, meaning mango in old Tamil, or Smashani, meaning graveyard, depending on the version of the legend.

The deity is shown lying down, about 15 ft from head to foot. In her four hands she holds a damaru with a snake wound around it, a fire bowl, a bowl of kumkuma and a trident. Its unused gold offerings, weighing 28 kg and 906 grams, were melted down. The gold went into a deposit certificate at the State Bank of India's Pollachi branch.

Festivals

• Date not given on the official pageMasani Amman Thiruvizha

  The official page calls it the centrepiece of all the festivities at the temple.

Tips for your visit

• Devotees walk around the trident, which stands in front of the main sanctum.
• The Neethi Kall, or Stone of Justice, is in the same complex as the main shrine.

Questions people ask