Subramaniya Swami Temple, Mailam – History

Subramaniya Swami Temple, Mailam – History

The temple, situated on a small hill is connected with a village on the Coromandel Coast, Bomayapalaiyam, very near Pondicherry, where a Vera Saiva mutt is found According to the name, Bomma or Bomme, derived from Brahmana. This was a village donated to Brahmans, as is confirmed by the Sthala Purana in which Bomayapalaiyam is also named Brahmapuram. The temple atop the hill was built by Bomayapalaiyam Mutt. The Mutt established at the foot of the hill looks after the temple administration.

It is known from the private diary of Ananda Ranga Pillai, the dubash under Dupleix, that Dupleix visited, in 1744, the head of the mutt and offered him a few yards of cloth and bottles of rose water. In another passage, dating from 1746, Ananda Ranga Pillai mentions that the swami of the mutt cites three pontiffs during this twenty-four-year period. First, he states that a certain Turaiyar Pachai Kandappaiyur, who was leading an ascetic life in Palani, was installed as head of the mutt. 

However, four days later, he corrects himself to say that Turaiyur Pachai Kandappaiyur, who had come to install the new pontiff of the mutt, desired to visit Pondicherry before returning to Turaiyur. This shows that Palani had control over the mutt. All the heads of the Bomayapalaiyam mutt are named Sivagnana Bala Siddha, which calls clearly to mind that Palani is a hill inhabited by siddhas and devoted to Murugan, or more specifically, to Murugan in his form of ascetic and young (Bala) god.