Sri Ramanasramam
Also known as Sri Ramana Ashram, Ramanasramam, Ramana Maharshi Ashram
Ramana Maharshi came to Arunachala as a boy of sixteen in 1896 and never left the hill. He lived in caves and shrines on it - Virupaksha Cave among them - until 1922, when he settled at the foot of the hill beside the samadhi of his mother Alagammal. The ashram grew around him there and he lived in it until his death on 14 April 1950. His teaching was self-enquiry, the question Who am I, and most of the guidance he gave was in silence. The campus now holds his samadhi hall, meditation halls, a library and archives, a bookstore and a goshala, and the day still runs on his rhythm, from the 5:30 am opening to the 8:30 pm close.
- The samadhi hall of Ramana Maharshi, and the daily pujas and chanting around it
- The New Hall, with his life-sized statue and a yogasana cut from a single stone
- Matrubhuteswara, the shrine over his mother Alagammal's tomb
- Virupaksha Cave on Arunachala, where he lived for years before the ashram
- The girivalam walk around the hill, about 14 km, which he told everyone to do
How to reach Sri Ramanasramam
- Tiruvannamalai Railway StationNearest railway station4 km
- Tiruvannamalai Bus StandNearest bus stand3 km
- Chennai AirportNearest airport176 km
Travel facts come from the records of the properties listed near Sri Ramanasramam, OpenStreetMap and public travel sources - on hill roads allow more time than the distance suggests. Local taxis and autos run from the station and bus stand.
Location
Coordinates 12.2241, 79.0568
Map data: OpenStreetMap contributors. Distances on this page are straight-line, so a hilly or riverside road can be longer.
About Sri Ramanasramam
Ramana Maharshi at Arunachala
Born Venkataraman Iyer in 1879 at Tiruchuli, he was sixteen when an attraction to the hill Arunachala took hold of him and he left his uncle's home in Madurai for Tiruvannamalai. He stayed on the hill for years - in Virupaksha Cave and other shrines - and people began to come for his darshan. In 1922 his mother Alagammal died and he moved down to the foot of the hill to be near her samadhi; he never left that spot again, and died there on 14 April 1950.
How the ashram grew
The ashram began as a hut beside his mother's samadhi in 1922, then grew: the Old Hall in 1928, and the temple within the campus, built between 1939 and 1949 by Vaidyanatha Sthapati, a descendant of the architect of the Brihadeeswara temple at Thanjavur. Ramana Maharshi lived in the Old Hall until 1949, and his body is enshrined in the samadhi hall today.
Staying at the ashram
The ashram keeps a limited number of rooms with basic amenities, and only for devotees of Bhagavan: people who come for temple visits, the girivalam or general tourism are asked to find other lodging, and devotees are told to avoid full-moon and festival days. Registration is online through the ashram's own booking site (stay.gururamana.org) before you travel - requests by phone or on arrival are not accepted. Indian devotees give an Aadhar number (or a passport, voter ID or PAN), and foreign devotees upload a passport copy with visa details for FRRO rules. Two simple meals and tea are served in the dining hall for guests, and the shrines, reading halls and the free shoe stall are all within the campus.
Inside the ashram
You pass under the arch into a courtyard with shady trees, one of them a 400-year-old Iluppai, and two Dravidian towers rise above it - the Matrubhuteswara shrine over Bhagavan's mother's tomb, and the New Hall. The New Hall holds a life-sized statue of Sri Ramana Maharshi and a yogasana carved from a single stone and polished like black marble. Shoes stay outside at the free stall, the bookstore keeps the ashram's own publications, the office and the reading halls keep regular hours, and the goshala looks after the cows.
From Tiruvannamalai to the world
The ashram publishes Ramana Maharshi's writings - more than 200 titles in English, Tamil and other languages - and has brought out the quarterly The Mountain Path since 1964. Ramana Kendras run in Delhi (since 1963), Hyderabad and Chennai, and around a hundred satsang centres in sixty-five countries keep the teaching alive.
Who came to see him
The British writer Paul Brunton came in 1931 and introduced Ramana Maharshi to the West in A Search in Secret India; Somerset Maugham visited in 1938 and drew on him for the holy man in The Razor's Edge. Swami Sivananda and Paramahansa Yogananda came too, and Gandhi sent freedom fighters to the ashram - Rajendra Prasad, Sarojini Naidu and Jamnalal Bajaj among them.
What is around Sri Ramanasramam
8 placesNearest first, with straight-line distances - a hilly or riverside road can be longer. Rows marked "from our listings" are distances reported by the properties listed here.
Temples & darshan 4
- Virupaksha Cave 1.0 km
- Arunachalesvara Temple Hindu temple in Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India 1.4 km
- Arahanthgiri Jain Math Jain matha in Tiruvannaamalai, Tamil Nadu, India 1.5 km
- Adi Annamalaiyar Temple, Adi Annamalai Hindu temple in Tamil Nadu, India 3.6 km
Worth seeing 3
- Arunachala Girivalam Path 1.0 km
- Arunachala Hill and holy site in Tamil Nadu, India 1.9 km
- Pallikondapattu 6.6 km
Towns around 1
- Adi Annamalai Suburb in Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India 2.7 km
Timings & best time
The ashram opens at 5:30 am and closes at 8:30 pm. The day runs: 6:00 am chanting of Aksharamanamalai in the New Hall, 6:45 chanting and milk offering at the samadhi, 8:00 Veda chanting, 9:00 puja at Bhagavan's shrine and then the Mother's shrine, 11:30 lunch, 4:00 readings in the Reading Hall, 5:00 Veda chanting and puja, 6:00 Tamil parayana from Monday to Saturday, 7:00 dinner. The samadhi hall and Mother's shrine close from 11 am to 2 pm, the dining hall is for guests and invitees, and everyone lines up ten minutes before a session. The schedule changes on Jayanti, Aradhana, Deepam and full-moon days.
October to March: the northeast monsoon cools the place through October-November and December-January is pleasant by day with cool nights. April and May are the hottest months, when the temperature can cross forty degrees, and the ashram advises light cotton clothes. The big days are Bhagavan's jayanti in December-January, the aradhana on 14 April, Mahasivaratri and Karthigai Deepam, when the beacon on the hill burns for a week.
- Rooms are for devotees of Bhagavan only and must be booked online (stay.gururamana.org) before you travel - the ashram does not take phone or on-arrival requests, and asks visitors to avoid full-moon and festival days.
- Dress for the local culture: clothes that cover the knees and shoulders, shoes left at the free stall outside, and a shawl for the cool early mornings in December and January.
- Inside the shrines, keep phones silent and stand when the bells ring during a puja; do not photograph deities without a priest's permission or enter the sanctum uninvited.
- Line up ten minutes before each session - the samadhi hall and Mother's shrine shut from 11 am to 2 pm, and the dining hall is only for guests and invitees.
- The girivalam around Arunachala is about 14 km, walked clockwise with the hill on your right; Bhagavan told old and infirm devotees who asked that they could go slowly.
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Timings, distances and facilities come from the properties listed here, OpenStreetMap and public sources - no invented data. Something out of date? Tell us and we will correct it.