The grove of ripe fruits
The last and longest section of Nakkeerar's poem — a hundred lines, 218 to 317 — is set in the hills, and it begins with a festival.
Across the hill country people worship Murugan with offerings, drumming and song, and they tie red protective threads. The translator points to lines 230 to 234, where the rites are built out of contrasting colours; red, the colour that runs through the whole poem, dominates.
Then the guide addresses the seeker directly, for the last time. Murugan is to be praised by his many names, and the poem lists them — among them the epithet for the one adorned with gold ornaments and red of complexion. The seeker is told what will happen when he arrives. Murugan will appear first in a vast form, and then in a youthful and fragrant one, and he will say: do not fear. Lines 292 to 295 describe the gift the seeker then receives.
The poem does not end on the gift. It ends on the hill. A waterfall thunders down from the summit in a roaring torrent, tearing up trees, carrying tusks and gems down the slope, and frightening the animals of the forest. Below it is the grove the section is named for: Pazhamudircholai, the grove of ripe fruits. The final line names Murugan as the lord of that hill — pazhamudhir solai malai kizhavone — and the translator's note calls him king of the Kurinji realm — the hill country.
That is where the guide stops, and so it is where the circuit ends. The six abodes follow the order of the poem's sections, and this grove is the sixth.
Today the name belongs to a shrine on the Solaimalai hill above Alagar Koil, about 21 km north-east of Madurai, which the Madurai district administration lists as one of the six abodes of Subramaniya. The tradition about Avvaiyar and the fruit tree that is often told here has not yet been traced to a written source, so it is not retold here.
Where this account comes from
- Hymn: Tirumurukāṟṟuppaṭai of Nakkīrar, ll. 218–317 (Pazhamudircholai section, part 6 of 6), with English meaning by S. Sachithanantham kaumaram.com · seen 2026-10-09
- Hymn: Tirumurukāṟṟuppaṭai of Nakkīrar, introduction and section outline, with English meaning by S. Sachithanantham kaumaram.com · seen 2026-10-09
- Hymn: Tirumurukāṟṟuppaṭai of Nakkīrar, section sequence across its 317 lines — Tirupparaṅkuṉṟam (1–77), Tiruccīralaivāy (78–125), Tiruvāviṉaṉkuṭi (126–176), Tiruvērakam (177–189), Kuṉṟutōṟāṭal (190–217), Pazhamudircholai (218–317). Part of the Pattuppāṭṭu anthology and counted in the Eleventh Tirumurai. kaumaram.com · seen 2026-10-09
- Government: Madurai District Administration, "Azhagar Kovil" (tourist place page) — Palamudirsolai, one of the six abodes of Subramaniya, atop the Solaimalai hill madurai.nic.in · seen 2026-10-09