Pathi
centres of congregational worship for the South Indian religious system of Ayyavazhi
Pathi (Tamil: பதி - "The place where God is") is the name of the primary centres of congregational worship for the South Indian religious system of Ayyavazhi, having a relatively large structure like that of a temple. They are seven in number.
The Pathis obtain their significance from the fact that Ayya Vaikundar and his religious activities were historically associated with them. There are seven Pathis, ("Seven places where God is") which appeared during the time of Ayya Vaikundar. According to Akilattirattu Ammanai the source of Ayyavazhi mythology, these Pathis are the places where Ayya Vaikundar performed the Avatara Ekanai (a means of divine revelation). These are the sacred places for the people of Ayyavazhi. These five Pathis are collectively called as Panchappathis. Sometimes Vakaippathi and Avatharappathi is added to this list.
Architecture and structure
Generally Pathis were structurally different from Nizhal Thangals. Unlike Nizhal Thangals the Pathis were not only considered as mere worship centers but also as holy places.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Pathi” is centres of congregational worship for the South Indian religious system of Ayyavazhi. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Pathi, centres and congregational, not as a finished interpretation.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3308336. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pathi” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.