What to expect
Karthigai Deepam
Annual November-December festival at Arunachaleswarar Temple in which a giant ghee lamp is lit atop Mount Arunachala, visible for miles around. This activity guide is organized from Tiruvannamalai in Tiruvannamalai district, with practical planning for routes, timing, nearby stays, food, operators and direct local inventory. Use it to compare what to see, how long to spend, when to go and which heritage stays, local guides, restaurants, shops, wellness options, transport and visitor services should be verified around Karthigai Deepam.
Practical guide
Plan Karthigai Deepam
Who's going?Tailor Karthigai Deepam to your trip
Typeactivity
Nearest baseTiruvannamalai
DistrictTiruvannamalai
Best timeOctober to March is the cooler, drier…
Time neededAbout an hour
EntryFree
Places to visit11→Listed businesses3→Karthigai Deepam is planned from Tiruvannamalai, one of the travel bases in Tiruvannamalai district. Use Tiruvannamalai for stays, food and local transport, then plan this place as a focused stop.
Getting there
How to visit
- Base yourself in Tiruvannamalai or nearby in Tiruvannamalai, then confirm the last-mile route locally before travel.
- If access depends on temple, museum or seasonal rules, check on the day before you go.
Timing
Best time
October to March is the cooler, drier season in the Cauvery delta.
Weather in Karthigai DeepamSeasonal guide
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Today at Karthigai Deepam
Sunrise6:03 am
Sunset6:25 pm
Golden hour best light5:25 pm–6:25 pm
Blue hour after sunset6:25 pm–6:50 pm
Sun sets toward compass bearingW · 279°
Moon tonight🌖 Waning gibbous · 83%
South-west monsoon. June to September is the south-west monsoon in Tamil Nadu. Expect heavy showers, mostly in bursts rather than all day — carry rain cover, allow extra time for getting around, and note that ferries and open-air sites are the first things affected.
Sun and moon are calculated for this location and shown in IST. Photography windows are the hour around sunrise and sunset; the sunset bearing is degrees clockwise from true north. Moon phase is accurate to about half a day.
Stay · eat · do · rent · see · shop
Stays, food & things to do near Karthigai Deepam
Verified hotels, homestays, restaurants, experiences, sights, shops and rentals around Karthigai Deepam — commission-free, with direct contact. Filter by what you need.
3 places to stay near Karthigai Deepam
G
Gia Mantra Global village
Place to stay
Top pick
Hotel
Gia Mantra Global villageHotel in Tiruvannamalai. Its own site heads its front page “Gia Mantra Global Village | Eco Village in India”.
S
Sai Guest House
Place to stay
Top pick
Guest house
Sai Guest HouseGuest house in Tiruvannamalai. Its own record says it keeps no closing hour.
U
UJ Pallazzio
Place to stay
Top pick
Hotel
UJ PallazzioHotel at 725/2, Vellore - Tiruvannamalai Rd. Its own site heads its front page “UJ Pallazzio – Business Class Luxury Hotel in Tiruvannamalai”.
Book with the place itself. India’s cyber-crime coordination centre warned in April 2025 that convincing copies of hotel and pilgrimage booking sites are being pushed through sponsored search and social ads, taking payment for rooms the property never hears about. Every listing here links to the business’s own contact details and its own Google or Bing profile — we take no commission and sit in nobody’s payment path. If a booking page reached you through an ad, check the address bar against the property’s own site before you pay. Fraud can be reported on cybercrime.gov.in or on 1930.
Ranked
The best of Tiruvannamalai, ranked
Karthigai Deepam sits in Tiruvannamalai, and these rank everything verified across the town rather than this one spot — built from the same listings shown above, ordered by the strength of the source evidence behind each entry rather than by anyone's star score. Every card shows how many places are really on it. Nobody pays to appear.
Across the whole of Tiruvannamalai
Ranked guides
Top experiences around Tiruvannamalai
10 more places around Tiruvannamalai, each worth a day of its own.
templeArunachaleswarar Temple
1.5 km · 19 min walk
One of the five Pancha Bhoota Stalams representing the element of fire, this vast temple complex sprawls across roughly 25 acres at the foot of Arunachala hill and hosts the annual Karthigai Deepam festival.
viewpointMount Arunachala
100 m · 1 min walk
The sacred red hill worshipped as an embodiment of Shiva, rising about 800 m above the town; focus of the Girivalam circumambulation and the site of the Karthigai Deepam beacon flame.
activityGirivalam (Arunachala circumambulation path)
2.1 km · 26 min walk
A 14 km barefoot circumambulation route around Mount Arunachala lined with eight lingam shrines, walked by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims especially on full-moon nights.
heritageSri Ramana Ashram (Ramanasramam)
2.0 km · 25 min walk
Ashram at the western base of Arunachala where sage Ramana Maharshi lived from 1922 until 1950, built around his mother's samadhi shrine; a major international centre for self-enquiry pilgrimage.
caveVirupaksha Cave
820 m · 10 min walk
Cave on the south-east slope of Arunachala where Ramana Maharshi lived for about 17 years (1899-1916), named after the 13th-century saint Virupaksha Deva entombed there.
heritageSeshadri Swamigal Ashram
2.0 km · 25 min walk
Ashram and samadhi shrine of the saint Seshadri Swamigal (1870-1929), a contemporary of Ramana Maharshi, located adjacent to Sri Ramanasramam.
heritageYogi Ramsuratkumar Ashram
4.3 km · ~11 min by auto
Ashram built around the samadhi of the mendicant saint Yogi Ramsuratkumar (1918-2001), noted for its large domed meditation hall on the Chengam road.
templeAdi Annamalai Temple
2.4 km · 30 min walk
Ancient Shiva temple on the girivalam path on the far side of Arunachala, regarded as the original ('adi') Annamalai shrine and an important stop for pilgrims circling the hill.
heritageAshtalingam Temples, Girivalam Path
880 m · 11 min walk
The Ashtalingams are eight Shiva lingam shrines set in the eight directions around Arunachala Hill along the 14-km Girivalam path. They comprise the Indra, Agni, Yama, Niruthi, Varuna, Vayu, Kubera and Esanya Lingams, each aligned to a cardinal or inter-cardinal direction and a planetary deity. Pilgrims worship them in sequence while circumambulating the hill, each lingam linked to a zodiac sign and boon.
heritagePavalakunru (Pavazhakundru)
2.8 km · ~7 min by auto
Pavalakunru is a small rocky hillock on the eastern spur of Arunachala with an ancient Shiva temple traditionally hallowed by the sage Gautama Rishi. In late 1898 the young Ramana Maharshi lived in this temple, where his mother found him seated motionless and pleaded with him to return home. It is a revered stop for pilgrims and devotees of Ramana Maharshi near the Girivalam path.
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Add a nearby businessThe experience
Karthigai Deepam — at a glance
TimingsDeepam lit at dusk on the festival's final day
Best timeNov-Dec (Karthigai month)
Entry: Free
Getting here
How to reach Karthigai Deepam
Tiruvannamalai town centre; special festival buses and trains run from Chennai and Bengaluru
Getting around Karthigai Deepam
We have not assessed physical access at this place yet. Across India, step-free routes, handrails and accessible toilets are the exception rather than the rule, and pavements are often interrupted — if step-free access matters to you, contact the site or a local operator before committing to the trip.
If you need help at Karthigai Deepam
112All emergencies (police · fire · medical)The single number to call in any emergency (ERSS).100Police101Fire108Ambulance (emergency / EMS)1091Women’s helpline (distress)1098Child helpline1363Tourist helpline (India, 24×7, multilingual)
Emergency numbers are verified against official government and state tourism sources. 112 works anywhere in India.
Nearby
What’s near Karthigai Deepam
On the map
Where Karthigai Deepam is
Good to know
Karthigai Deepam — frequently asked
When is the best time to visit Karthigai Deepam?
October to March is the cooler, drier season in the Cauvery delta.
What are the entry fee and timings at Karthigai Deepam?
Entry: Free. Timings: Deepam lit at dusk on the festival's final day.
How do I reach Karthigai Deepam?
Base yourself in Tiruvannamalai or nearby in Tiruvannamalai, then confirm the last-mile route locally before travel. If access depends on temple, museum or seasonal rules, check on the day before you go.
How much time do I need for Karthigai Deepam?
About an hour.
What else is near Karthigai Deepam?
Nearby you can pair Mount Arunachala (100 m), Virupaksha Cave (820 m), Ashtalingam Temples, Girivalam Path (880 m), Arunachaleswarar Temple (1.5 km).
Read before you go
Karthigai Deepam guides, stories & itineraries
We have not published a story about Karthigai Deepam itself yet. These cover Tiruvannamalai, the town it sits in, and the wider district.
Around Tiruvannamalai
Karthigai Deepam sits in Tiruvannamalai, so these cover the streets, buildings and surroundings around it.
Image credits
- Karthigai Deepam:Sakthiprasanna · CC BY-SA 4.0