Hosur Kottai Mariamman

Hosur  Kottai Mariamman

Compiled by

P.R.Ramachander

    Hosur is a town situated in Tamil Nadu near the Karnataka border.. In the twelfth century    this  town was ruled by  by a king called Tirubhavana malla Poorvadhi Raja  Shiva Pada Sekara  Perumal. He built a mudfort in the present Ram Nagar    area of Hosur. Even before that  the tribals of that are were  worshipping  one ant hill as their Goddess,.At that time a Bosala  dynasty  called Ramanatha conquered  Hosur.  At this time the  king wanted to build a  temple   for his worship  inside the fort. The family of that king were suffering   from several diseases. The tribals brought to his notice their anthill temple  . By worshipping that Goddess all the illness in his family vanished.  The king made that  anthill as his family’s goddess and built a   temple  for her. He called her  as “Kottai Mariamman” (Fort  Mariamman)   he also repaired the Rama and shiva temples near the temple .   After  several years  of his death  Hosur was  conquered  by Tippu Sulthan..He abducted  and   employed a British engineer called Hamilton  to build a fort for him   in the place   where the mud fort was there.. He built a rock   fort in that place. Hosur was conquered   by the British from  Tipu Sultan. The collector of Hosur Mr.Pratt took up his residence inside this  fort  and without the knowledge of British Government   he built a fabulous house inside the fort in the model of Kenilworth castle. Mr Pratt was dismissed and Mr  Walter Eliot who was appointed as the collector took up his residence in that house along with his wife. Both of them found the   worship to the Kottai Mariamman temple very noisy and Mrs Eliot  berated the devotees. Soon she was affected by small pox,. MrEliot consulted the locals who advised him to worship the Mariamman  inside  the fort. She was immediately cured and Eliots became devotees of the   temple. They also presented two big pillars  inscribed with  an elephant to the temple. Outside the Mariamman temple there is a grove  of Peepul trees and neem trees. The Statues  of Ganesa and serpents have been consecrated there. People also believe that an invisible river flows    below the Mariamman temple. Devotees believe that by worshipping the  Goddess they would get quickly  married. They also believe that barren women would get children by worshipping the Goddess. There is big three day festival in the temple in  the month  of Chithirai.. All tuedays and Fridays of Adi month and eighteenth day of Adi are festival days in the temple. People say that There are eight   security  goddesses  around this temple to protect Kottai Mariamman. The temple is about a km from the city Bus stand of Hosur. And it would be open between 5 Am to 11 Am  and between 6 Pm to 8 Pm.