Pazhamudircholai Murugan Temple

Pazhamudircholai, also called Solaimalai Murugan Temple, stands on a hill on the outskirts of Madurai and is one of the Arupadaiveedu, the six abodes of Murugan. The name joins the Tamil words for fruit, scatter and orchard. The Kanda Puranam tells that after Murugan left Kailasa, hurt when the fruit of knowledge went to Ganesha, the poet Avvaiyar came to calm him without knowing who he was; seated in disguise in a naaval tree, he tested her by shaking down fruit, and the place took its name from the scattered fruit.

At first only Murugan's vel, his divine spear, was worshipped here; shrines to Ganesha and to Murugan with his consorts Deivanai and Valli came later. The temple appears in the Sangam work Tirumurukarruppadai by Nakkeerar and in the Cilappatikaram, and Arunagirinathar's Tiruppukal hymns include verses about it. The state's Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department runs the temple.