History

Vallimalai is a village in Katpadi taluk of Vellore district, Tamil Nadu, India. It is located 30 kilometres (19 mi) from Vellore and it is near Ponnai. It is known for Subramaniyar temple, a Hindu temple for Murugan.

Vaḷḷimalai is the place where Vaḷḷi, the daughter of Lord Vishnu and Lakshmi was born (according to legends, via the sweat drop from Lakshmi that fell on the grass at this place, and later on consumed by a female deer, thereafter Vaḷḷi was born to the Deer). Raised up by the Chief of the tribe, Vaḷḷi grew up to be a beautiful damsel. Narada muni recounted about Vaḷḷi to Murugan thereafter Murugaṉ went to woo the damsel Vaḷḷi. After several vain attempts and finally with Lord Ganesha’s help, Vaḷḷi and Murugaṉ are united. They elope from Vaḷḷimalai and get married, settle down at Thanigai (Thirutthani).

There is another place by name Vellimalai, near Kanyakumari and Nagercoil bordering with Kerala State, which subscribes to the same story, where in Valli was born to marry with Murugan in a love marriage.

Vaḷḷimalai is a dear place to Vaḷḷi and thus Vaḷḷi, Murugaṉ and Deyvaanai live eternally at this place. There is the Thiruppugazh aashramam atop Vaḷḷimalai, where the tradition of Vaḷḷi lives on. During the Pallava dynasty’s regime, they built the Subramaniyar temple, a rock cut temple dedicated to Murugaṉ. The temple is one of the monuments of national importance in Tamil Nadu.

Another legend about how Vaḷḷi came to the Vaḷḷimalai involves lord Vishnu. In the foot of hill Vaḷḷimalai is the Sri Thenvenkatachalapathy temple, where Vishnu’s moorthy looks like a saint. According to history when Vishnu was in deep meditation, Lakshmi came in the form of a deer and she plays in front of him. At that time Vishnu’s meditation was disturbed and he saw that deer. Due to his holy glory a beautiful daughter was born. Both of them left their daughter for the sake of their devotee king. After that, the king found this infant in a Vaḷḷikiḻaṅku field so, she was called Vaḷḷi. In  the temple, there is an idol which is Swayambu murthi. There is a belief that childless devotees will get children after praying in this temple. Western Ganga dynasty king Raja Mallan-I carved caves for Jain monks who lived here to spread their religion in Tamilakam.