Architecture, gopurams and halls

The plan: five prakarams

Annamalaiyar Temple is laid out as five concentric enclosures (prakarams), all oriented east towards the rising sun, with Arunachala rising directly behind to the west. The innermost enclosure holds the sanctum of Arunachaleswarar. Each outer enclosure was added later, so walking inward means walking back in time.

The outer walls are not a perfect rectangle. Wikipedia gives their lengths as about 700 ft on the east and west, 1,479 ft on the south and 1,590 ft on the north. The Tiruvannamalai District Administration puts the total area at about 25 acres (10 hectares).

The official temple website lists these features by enclosure:

Enclosure (prakaram)	Feature noted on the official site
Second	Images of the 63 Nayanmars (Shaiva saints)
Third	Finely carved pillars
Fourth	Statue of Vallala Maharaja (Veera Ballala III)
Fifth (outermost)	Thousand-pillared hall

Gopurams

The temple is famous for its towers. The main ones are listed below; notes come from the official temple website, the district administration and Wikipedia.

Tower	Notes
Rajagopuram (east)	Main entrance. 11 tiers, about 66 m (217 ft), base about 135 × 98 ft. Official site: built by Krishnadevaraya, 1513–1514 CE. Other accounts say it was completed by Sevappa Nayak.
Vallala Maharaja Gopuram	Named after the Hoysala king Veera Ballala III; official site dates it to around 1318.
Kili Gopuram (parrot tower)	Inner tower; linked in legend with the poet Arunagirinathar.
Ammani Amman Gopuram (north)	Named after the woman ascetic who raised funds to complete it. One of the two entrances the temple lists for devotees.
Thirumanjana Gopuram (south)	Southern outer tower.
Pei Gopuram	Outer tower; most accounts place it on the west, facing the hill.
Rishi Gopuram	Attributed to the Chola period in temple records.
Kattai Gopurams	Smaller towers on the inner walls (north, south and west).

The count of “nine gopurams” often quoted is a convention. The official site lists ten structures because it counts each of the smaller kattai towers separately.

Halls and sculpture

Thousand-pillared hall (Aayiram Kaal Mandapam). Built in the late Vijayanagara period in the outermost enclosure, near the eastern entrance. Its granite pillars are carved with yalis (mythical lion-like beasts), dancers and deities.

Pathala Lingam. A small underground shrine beneath the thousand-pillared hall. The young Ramana Maharshi meditated here in 1896, so absorbed that he did not notice insects biting him. Look for the steps leading down; the chamber is quiet and easy to miss.

Nandis. Wikipedia notes a large Nandi in each enclosure, and a large Nandi mandapam faces the main sanctum. The official site lists the Periya Nandi as one of the temple’s shrines.

Tanks

The official website lists two temple tanks (theerthams):

• Sivaganga Theertham, the larger stepped tank used during festivals, with a Vinayaka shrine beside it.
• Brahma Theertham, within the complex.

Around the hill itself there are many more. The district administration says there are “more than 350 tanks” around Arunachala. Some of them, such as Varuna Theertham, sit beside the 8 Lingams on the Girivalam path.

Inscriptions and sculpture

The district administration counts about 450 stone inscriptions and more than 1,000 statues at the temple. The inscriptions, in Tamil and Grantha, run from the Chola period onwards. See temple history for what they record.