The Mountain That Is God: Arunachaleswarar's Fire

The Mountain That Is God: Arunachaleswarar's Fire Once a year, on top of a hill in Tamil Nadu, a fire is lit that is visible for miles in every direction. It burns in a cauldron holding hundreds of kilograms of ghee and camphor, fed continuously for days, and hundreds of thousands of people gather just to watch it from wherever they can see it — from rooftops, from fields, from the road. A NOTE ON SOURCES Claims marked in this video as 'devotee belief' are traditions widely held and widely reported, but not established by science. Claims marked 'historians disagree' are points where scholarly sources genuinely conflict. Everything else is drawn from the sources used to research this catalogue. IMAGE CREDITS Images via Wikimedia Commons: • 2017-05-Thiru Annamalai Hill 2 small.jpg — VasuVR — CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... • Tiruvannamalai, Arunachala Hill, Annamalai Hill, Slopes, India.jpg — Vyacheslav Argenberg — CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... • Thiruvannamalai Arunachaleswarar Temple Rajagopuram.jpg — N. Vivekananthamoorthy — CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... • Tiruvannamalai arunachaleswarar kovil.jpg — Rkarthick937 — CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... • Tiruvannamalai Hills.jpg — Balu 606902 — CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... • Tiruvannamalai hills.jpg — Balu 606902 — CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... • Arunachalesvara Temple - Annamalaiyar Temple Tiruvannamalai ttkcvrvb122k23iph (115).jpg — Vinayaraj — CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... • Arunachalesvara Temple - Annamalaiyar Temple Tiruvannamalai ttkcvrvb122k23iph (12).jpg — Vinayaraj — CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... • Arunachala Hill view from Arunagiri Children Park in Tiruvannamalai.jpg — Adityamadhav83 — CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... • Tiruvannamalai ThiruKarthigai Deepam Festival.jpg — MAHEDRAN S — CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... • Tiruvannamalai Hill.jpg — Mahendranshiva7 — CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... • Tiruvannamalai, hill view.jpg — Polur at Tamil Wikipedia — CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... • Tiruvannamalai Gopuram.jpg — A.D.Balasubramaniyan — CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... FOOTAGE Short devotional clips (not filmed at this site, shown to illustrate what's being described): • fire — Samar Layek (Pexels) — Pexels licence — free for commercial use, no attribution required https://www.pexels.com/video/vibrant-... • prayer — Tanay kundu (Pexels) — Pexels licence — free for commercial use, no attribution required https://www.pexels.com/video/priest-p... • prayer — Tanay kundu (Pexels) — Pexels licence — free for commercial use, no attribution required https://www.pexels.com/video/traditio... • aarti — Gaurav Rajit Maurya (Pexels) — Pexels licence — free for commercial use, no attribution required https://www.pexels.com/video/captivat... • prayer — Tanay kundu (Pexels) — Pexels licence — free for commercial use, no attribution required https://www.pexels.com/video/intricat... • river — Ravi Kant (Pexels) — Pexels licence — free for commercial use, no attribution required https://www.pexels.com/video/serene-g... • prayer — Tanay kundu (Pexels) — Pexels licence — free for commercial use, no attribution required https://www.pexels.com/video/priest-p...