TEMPLE HISTORY

Om Sri Jada Jothy Khotai Muniswarar temple is dedicated to Lord Muniswarar, and one of the oldest temple in Batu Caves, Gombak district.

This temple is located Lot 2229, Kg Kenneison Brothers, Off Jalan Raintree Utama,(Opposite Saujana Impiana Apartment), Mukim Batu , 68100 Batu Caves, Selangor Darul Ehsan. This temple is the one and only oldest Lord Muniswarar's temple located nearby the cave(Batu Caves), with a vibrant, peacufull , green , soothing and calming environment in Batu Cave's area.

Its a brief 15 minutes walk from Batu Caves KTM station to this temple.

Currently the temple is being managed by Association Of Jada Jothy Muniswarar Devotees Batu Caves, Selangor, carrying the registration number with ROS - PPM 001-10-21022012. (Bahasa Melayu- Persatuan Penganut Jada Jothy Muniswarar Batu Caves, Selangor. The first general meeting was conducted on 23rd Januari 2012 to form the current management committee. The association consists of 10 members led by Mr Annadurai as the current president of the committee. This team was formed to solve all the problems the temple is facing,as a first step for the next level of development  for the temple.

The temple was established in the 1909 by a group of limestone quarry workers at that period at Kg Kenneison(Batu Caves) nearby the  cave. This temple was known as Sri Muniandy temple when its started and later the name was changed to Om Sri Jada Jothy Khotai Muniswarar temple. During that period of time mentioned above, the temple was only built with a small attap hut, no hard cement floors. a lot of massive jungle trees, and a quiet environment, also no other facilities as electricity and piped water supply.

In 1955, a Christian-Indian lady called Mrs Aanandham got into trance during a ceremony held at the temple area, for a special prayers as new bombing techniques were introduced during that period to blast out the limestone rocks. The lady , who got into trance asked the  devotees to reconstruct the temple with more wider spaces , for a more intense deification of devotees towards the deity, Lord Muniswarar, and  demanded a special prayers to be done at the temple for the new beginning of the bombing works at the quarry and to ensure the safety of all workers. Later, the management group who were managing the temple , decides to refine and permutate the statue of Lord Muniswarar which stands till today at the temple in 'moolastahanam'.

According to the locals, the  temple was built at the area to protect the quarry workers from occupational accidents such as falling from height when fixing the pipes and steels for climbing the cave's curvy parts. These pipes and steels are where the climbing workers will be fastened to, preventing them from falling down. But due to some unexplainable reasons, accidents still happened, several of the workers died. Despite the strict safety rules, still these casualties happens. People are frightened and confused as there were bad evil power, engrossed the place.

To overcome these panic - stricken situation, the quarry workers established the temple for the safety and well being of the workers. It is said , after the temple established in that area, no more casualties or accidental deaths during work  were reported. It really proves the divine power of the temple and the eminent truth,  people's belief towards Lord Muniswarar as their guardian in this area .

Today , the temple is being re-constructed to suit its devotees need . The deities as the main altar are Lord Khotai Muniswarar (an avatar of Lord Shiva), Sri Vinayaga and Sri Subramanyar. In front of the 'moolasthanam' there is 'nandhi' and 'palipeedam' and right after that(opposite Khotai Muniswarar) stands the sturdy Lord Edumban with his famous hillocks, in a hard form of 'Thirusoolam' as the main guard of the temple.

 Durgai Amman temple facing the north direction with its own kind  of style and standards.

There is also Lord Karupannaswamy temple, located at north east of the temple area facing also north. During the month of Karthigai especially,  Swamy Ayyappa's devotees will visit the temple to worship Lord Karupar. It is also said that , this is the only temple built for Lord Karupar with 18 steps in Batu Caves- Pathinettam padi Karuppuswamy. 

There is also Lord Jadamuni's statue here. This temple was built for animal sacrificing by the people those days. Eventhough the practice has been discontinued, in order to respect the faith and rituals  people conducted for this temple, current management committee with the Lord;s blessing's Himself, decided to build and manage the temple properly according to Hindu agamas and principles.

Om Sri Jada Jothy Khotai Muniswarar temple are also registered with Malaysia Hindu Sangam.

There is a lot of stories being told by the locals or the devotees themselves who went through a lot of situations in the temple. Some of it may sounds mysterious, mystic or even unbelievable. For example, those days this area were very dark.(Nearby Cave) Even the priest of the temple will complete the evening prayers and will leave the temple before its get dark.

One day, as the priest of the temple were putting oil for the lamp of the deities, he suddenly  witnessed seven"short" men running  crossing in front of him towards the bush (jungle) area. As soon the priest saw this, although confused and unclear of what he really saw, he started to realize that normally a temple will be guarded by "bootham' according to Hindu tales and stories. He is not sure wether what he saw, is the real 'bootham' or not, but an extraordinary hunch remains inside him till today. What really the priest saw?

Till today, the priest will keep reminding the devotees to not visit the temple with evil heart/mind towards others and will warn them as they have to bear the consequences if anything bad happens to them, because of  the evil thoughts they are having in mind.

There is another story from a guard worker , who will hear  strange sounds during night and once  he admits that he saw an old man wearing white clothes, with long beard, holding a cigar , entering the temple exactly after midnight,at  early hours of the morning.

 A chinese rock and stone collector from Batu Caves, also said that when he was working one day at the cave looking for colourful stones, he stumbled upon an old man . The old man asked the chinese guy what were he doing in that place, and he answered that he was looking for stones as it is his job. The old man guided the chinese guy to a place inside the cave where he claims, to have more beautiful stones  . To this chinese guy's surprise, there is as the old man said, shining and colourfull rocks scattered all over the place where the old man pointed . When he turned to thank the old ,man , he is not there anymore.

Well, there is a lot of stories about this historic temple. For your kind information, we dont have any intention to hyperbolize these stories in benefit of our temple or to find any kind of  ridiculous  publicity . The point is , a lot of people from different races, such a Chinese, Indonesian, Christians, Sikhs visiting the temple and every each one of them have their own reasons to come and worship Lord Muniswarar, because they believe , there is something special about this temple which can only be felt and experienced by those who are present there themselves.

Current management committee , have decided to rebuild the temple, especially the damaged part in order for the preparation of the temple;s annual festival and to initiate Pradosham prayers in the temple as soon as possible.

 Getting into trance is prohibited in the temple except  for festival days such as Thiruvizha and Thaipusam to prevent irresponsible people from desecrating the temple  for their own benefits.

See you all soon.

Thank You

Secretary

Malleshwara Rau