Panchamuga Anjaneya Temple, Villupuram

Address

Panchamuga Anjaneya Temple, Villupuram
Panchavatee, Vanur T.K,

Villupuram District,

Tamil Nadu, Pincode – 605109.

Moolavar

Panchamuga Anjaneya

Introduction

Panchamukha Anjaneya Temple (also known as Sri Jayamangala Anjaneya Temple) is in Panchavatee, a small village, on the high way leading to Tindivanam, just 9 kms away from Pondicherry (Puducherry).The temple is situated near Pondicherry, in the village of Pappanchavadi, Vanur Taluk, Villupuram District, Tamil Nadu.
The gigantic image of Anjaneya (Hanuman) that stands 36 feet high is one of the tallest Hanuman images in India. Panchamukha Anjaneya Temple is run by Pamchamukha Sri Jayamurthi Seva Trust including Parama Sri Ramani Anna. The temple land was donated by Santhanam Iyengar.

Puranic Significance

Panchamuga Sri Jayamaruthi seva trust, consisting of people with high spiritual beliefs, wished for this temple. The main crew member who involved in the creation of this temple is Parama Sri Ramani Anna. He is also the crew member in the Chennai Nanganallur Anjaneya temple trust.
While return after attending the Kumbabisekam of panchamuga hanuman temple near panrutti, Mr. Santhanam iyyengar asked Parama Sri Ramani anna to visit his land, which lies on the way to chennai. Ramani anna also accepted his invitation and went to that land, there only that miracle happen. After placing his foot on that land Ramani feels the divines of hanuman and also hanuman ordered to build a temple for him. Mr. Santhanam also gave a part of his land to build a temple for Hanuman. The Temple is believed to be 800 years old.

Beliefs

Panchamukha Sri Anjaneya’s devotees throng this temple to offer him a garland of ulundu vadais (black gram savory doughnuts), known popularly as Hanumar vadais. The significance behind offering this garland is that black gram has cooling properties. This cools down the angry form of Anjaneya and makes him benign to his devotees. Another reason is that the black gram is also the dedicated grain for Lord Saneeswaran (Saturn) and the two snake planets, Rahu and Ketu. It is believed that devotees of Anjaneya do not get affected by the malfeasant positions of these planets. On Saturdays, the day dedicated to Sani, many vadamalais (garlands of vadais) are offered to Anjaneya.

Special Features

Panchamukha Anjaneya Temple near Pondicherry (Puducherry) has two magnificent shrines. The first one is dedicated to Jayamangala Valampuri Maha Ganapathy and the other to Lord Rama (incarnation of Lord Vishnu). Rama is shown in his Pattabishega Thirukolam (coronation form).

The deity is a unique Viswaroopa image (universal image) with five faces. Hanuman’s own face is shown in the center with the other four showing Garuda (kite, vehicle of Vishnu), Hayagreeva (horse-faced incarnation), Narasimha (lion-faced incarnation and Varaha (boar-faced image). This five-faced Panchamukha Sri Anjaneya is a symbol of the synergy that exists in Hinduism between animal, man and the divine! As only four faces of Anjaneya are visible from the front, a small glass window on the rear wall allows you to see the fifth face at the rear as you take a pradakshinam (circumambulation) of the shrine.

In front of Panchamukha Sri Anjaneya’s shrine, there is a vessel filled with water which has a floating stone said to weigh about 14 kgs, which was one of the rocks used by Lord Ram’s Vaanar Sena (monkey army) to build the bridge across to Lanka. Rama was on a mission to attack his wife Sita’s kidnapper, the ten-headed demon Ravana.