Our Recent Temple tours

Part 1: Kukke Subramanya and Dharmasthala:

To see all the pics we took during Kukke Subramanya trip,  click here


We had been planing to visit Kukke Subramanya swamy temple from the last year , One: because it is our 'family deity'( Kula daiva, mane devaru ) and then Secondly we wished to see and enjoy the scenery in a leisurely train journey.

We started off from Bengaluru-Yeswantpur Raiway station at 07.30 am in late May by Train which has been newly introduced to benefit many eager and grateful travelers like us ,as the train passes through some of the most beautiful lush green hills from Sakaleshpur down to Subramanya (TR No 16515-Yesvantpur-Mangalore Exp).

From Hassan onward, the nature in its lush green luxury beckons you and exhilarates you; It is a certain break from the routine humdrum of City life.The only complaint you have is on the total lack of catering on this train,  a 'day train'  is expected to provide, .. Absolutely no  proper lunch is available during lunch time even at Hassan or Sakaleshpur ( between 12 to 2 pm) and you are left to make do with some Puliyogare or curd rice available in limited quantities on the platforms...Pack something at early morning from Bengaluru if you can!
But then, that apart, you have no time to complain on hunger as nature feeds you  abundantly with some spectacular shots of ghat section often whisking through 40-odd tunnels en route...Many co-passengers including my children spent most of the time at the door of the bogie happily clicking away on their Cameras...

The train reaches Subramanya Road station by 4.30 pm .You can take share jeep service( Rs 25/ per head) which we used to reach Kukke Subramanya town. Taxis are available for those who need it..The jeep too passes through some lovely curvy gentle hill roads in the 20 odd minutes it takes to reach the temple town..Really Nice!

As we had booked our room in advance at SLR Residency, a decent and comfortable hotel ( Rents from 500/- onwards), we relaxed for some time and went over to the temple.
We had a beautiful evening darshan of the Lord..There is an elephant there too which does various tricks the mahout has taught, and entertains the young devotees.

Free Dinner is served from 8 pm or so , usually there is a long queue for public, and a small exclusive Dining room for Seva karthas and Guests. Of course, the same simple tasty meal is served everywhere...
After the meal, outside on the small shanty shops,you either buy some knick-knacks , souvenirs for back home and friends.. Or just go back to room and hit the sack..Usually you need to get up early in temple towns anyway, esp if you have a packed schedule, so sleeping early is not a bad idea at all.....
Next morning , wake early, get dressed and munch on some tasty Idly-vada dipping in Mangalore sweet sambaar in the Hotel( How different from the spicy, unsweetened Chennai sambaar!), swallow Mangalore bajjis if you will and then leave for the rest of Kukke subramanya darshan..

The Adi subramanya temple in the backyard accessed through a small winding road, then visit Kukke mutt and the Samputa Narasimha swamy temple on the external fringe of the main temple, visit the Sthala Devi (Hosaligamma ) temple and we embarked on the next visit- the famed Dharmasthala some 70 Kms by road..We opted to take a separate taxi for 4 of the family considering at the rush for Bus, and time limits we had before starting back that night...
The roads to Dharmasthala are undoubtedly lovely, dotted with green winding landscapes and gentle hills , the journey being not at all serious to cause any travel-sickness..

You reach the holy town after nearly 1.5 hours travel..We got ourselves, special darshan tickets at Rs 200 each ( Children like my daughter below 12 yrs exempted) and had a very quick and satisfying darshan of Lord Manjunatha swamy. The famous  free mass feeding at the huge Lunch hall, which has created some records in the genre, is an awe-inspiring scene and the food is simple and tasty and served at jet speed!..
oh, WOW! Thumbs up for the efficiency!

We returned soon after and managed to have a leisurely Evening darshan at Subramanya and left for catching the night train back to Bengaluru. (16518 Yeswantpur Exp at 9.50 pm)
 This train is alright too, you spend the night asleep after being tired, but it reaches Bengaluru a little later, 7.30-ish, coming through Mysore route

All in all, a wonderful trip to the family deity in the hills..!


Part 2: Temples around Chennai


On an impulse , more because of a personal need, I undertook two temple visits today, two ancient, holy and splendid temples in the suburbs of Chennai...

Here is the travelogue: with titles  linked to their detailed websites!

1. Pozhichalur Agatheeswarar Temple,  where Moolavar being Lord Shiva, with Shanishwara also being worshiped here...
2. Thiruneermalai Neervannan Perumal temple near Pammal, where the Lord Vishnu as Rama avatar presides...


To see all the pics of the two Chennai temples above,  click here
 
1.Agatheeswarar temple


I had head that the first ancient holy shrine is well known in TN as 'Vada Thirunallar' or as the 'second, mini Shani shrine' of which is there near Karaikal, Puducherry!

I took a Local train trip from Guindy station to Pallavaram, the nearest rail head. From there I haggled with an Auto-rickshaw driver that I needed a Round trip from the Station to these two temples and back to the station..He came up with a figure which as a Chennaiite, I felt was in order and hopped into the auto-rickshaw.

The winding dusty roads across the other side of  GST Highway lead to Pozhichalur a non-descript residential area near Pammal. You get off near the seemingly inoccuous Temple entrance without much fanfare or teeming vendors..( Again today being a working day!)

The Lord Shivan is being worshiped a a Medium sized Black stone swayambu- (self evolved) Lingam ..Being a working day, 9.30 am, there were hardly anyone and I had the priest to all by myself. The Shaniswarar faces opposite to the main deity ( who is facing East) and Thayar Aananthavalli faces South.
 After participating in the Ashtottaram to both Shivan and Shani, I came out to visit  the small shrine of Hanuman..
I recited Hanuman chalisa there and prayed.


That's it and I hop back into the Autorickshaw for the second leg of the journey.


We move through some more winding small dusty roads in Pammal and come up bang in front of a fairly green field and small hill with  two newly painted temple gopurams atop it shining in bright sunshine..Oh, you do not expect such sights anywhere in Chennai's flat terrain!( except maybe St Thomas mount)... So I was pleasantly surprised and clicked a photo.

The temple at the bottom is Neervanna Perumal temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu who showed himself in Rama avatar and I heard the sthala puranam from the nice vaadhyar there in chaste Tamil..I did manage to get the gist of it.. ( You can read it in the linked website above anyway!)...The Lord's idol is lovely, medium sized and decked up in bright silks and sparkling jewels..Some sight that!... I witnessed ashtottaram and Mangalarathi...


There are two small temples for Thayar and Lord Rama too, but being a working day 10.30 am, both were locked, but had grills , so I did manage to have some darshan there too..


On coming out you see long flights of red and white painted stone steps leading up the hill...to Lord Narasimha and Ranganatha temples which I had seen from a distance en route. But I lost my confidence learning thare were 200padi( steps) and today being a rather hot sweaty day nearing noon,  I did not venture to go up but prayed to the deities from below and left back to Pallavaram Station , to return home..


 I had consumed some 3.5 hours totally ( 8 am to 11.30am) , all the way back..So that's how long it takes from the heart of Chennai to these two temples..Worth visiting for devotees of Lord Shiva, Shani and Vishnu in and around Chennai..

Thanjavur -Tiruchi Temple tour -2009

We set out this winter on a temple trail on what is fairly familiar stretch to me, but with my family of wife and children who had not seen these ancient temples in the Tiruchi-Thanjavur belt.

Day 1:

We arrived at Tiruchirapalli Junction from Chennai on Rockfort express by 5.30 am and we had a pleasant ride to the Hotel ( Hotel Femina, Tiruchi) in their pickup cab.
It is a good hotel to stay for trips like these, a little up-market but comes with a good complimentary breakfast in their Woodlands restaurant and you won’t have any complaints about their room and service.

There is even a Travel desk where we booked a cab for both the days of our tour..Charges were quite decent, I can say, as the drivers were courteous and well-informed.
We had planned to see Thanjavur the first day and Tiruchi on the second. A compact Indica meant for four of us stood ready at 8.45 am at the Portico.

It is around 60 kms to Thanjavur town from here and our first stop was though at Thiruvaiyaru which is about 13 km away from the city. We started at 9.00 am. The driver seemed to know his way around and was quite co-operative.

Thiruvaiyaru
The driver took us through what he called a ‘shortcut’ and it was a new tarred village road under PM Graam sadak plan, so it was a smooth ride through green paddy and sugarcane fields, but it was 10.20 when we reached the Thyagaraja Samadhi at Thiruvaiyaru.
We met hundreds of villagers dressed in yellow who do annual padayatra to Samayapuram temple all along the road. Young and old with walking sticks, stood out for their spirit and devotion.
The annual celebration of Thyagaraja is around the corner and Ganapathi homam was in progress when we had Darshan of the revered poet-saint’s samadhi.

The next stop was the ancient panchanatheeswarar temple at Thiruvaiyaru also called Iyaarappar temple. It is one of the saptha sthanam temples of Lord Shiva, a huge temple with a no of prakaarams one after another but it looks like the temple really needs some maintenance.
After darshan here, we left for Chandran temple, one of the navagraha temples nearby.

Thingaloor Chandran temple:

One of the smaller shrines outside the usual Moolavar (always Shiva) had quite a few devotees praying there when we reached. We offered our prayers and left taking arati and vibhuti.
It was around 11.00 am now and we needed a cool break and so we drank delicious tender coconuts outside the temple.

Thittai Guru Bhagawan temple

We reached here in about 20 mins from the last stop.
This navagraha temple had celebrated Guru peyarchi just a week or so back, (the moving over of Guru from one zodiac sign to another) and we could see the Shamiana and barricades for it too. Vasishteswaraswamy is the ruling deity here and the Lord Guru is outside in compact enclosure bedecked in yellow. Children prayed for their smooth sailing in education and we two for everything else in life.

Punnainallur Mariamman temple

As we enter Thanjavur there is a diversion to Punnainallur on the suburbs, and there stands a lovely temple dedicated to Goddess mariamman.
Though there was a huge rush, we managed to have darshan with special ticket and broke for lunch at Gnanam Hotel. The food was moderate, both in price at Rs 70 per Veg. meals and taste.

Thanjavur Palace and library
( All pics below-click to enlarge)


Maratha ruler Serfoji II was a connoisseur of art and literature and has a palace full of antique statues and palm leaf, manuscripts and rare books. This is worth a visit for art and literature lovers and quite awe inspiring. Wish they could renovate the place and make it more attractive.

Brihadeeswara temple or Periya Koil (Big temple)


It is without doubt a colossal monument of Chola style stone architecture. The sheer size of Gopurams, shiva lingam and statues are magnificent.

We are there on a Pradosham day and hence even this huge temple looked very crowded. I had a ‘near darshan’ while the other three family members managed to push inside and had direct darshan. Felt blessed and blissed!

We had managed to cover 6 temples and one Samadhi in one day from 9 to 7 , which was pretty good going. Thankfully wife and children co-operated with the tough schedule and enjoyed themselves too.

We returned to Tiruchi, had dinner (snacks like idli , dosa) in Guru Hotel near our stay and took well deserved rest.

Tip:

· Travel taxis charge Rs 600 plus Rs 4 per Km. We had covered 160 kms in day.
· One needs to provide for the temple special darshan tickets which vary from Rs 5 to 25/-
at most places in this stretch besides parking fees also in the same range.


On the way Thanjavur-Trichy --a green stretch!

Day 2:

We managed to leave by 9 am after a sumptuous breakfast, courtesy of Hotel Femina and left for the Trichy- Srirangam tour. This time the driver was more informed and did the entire basic route planning for us.

Rockfort

The famous oldest rock formation in the world houses two ancient temples.
One needs to climb 200+ steps to Thayumanuvar temple midway and all 430 till Uchi pillaiyar.


We had decided against climbing the steps of Rockfort to uchi pillaiyar temple due to our physical constraints; so we had darshan of Manikya Vinayakar at the foot of the hill and left.

Jambukeswarar temple at Thiruvanaikaval

Situated on the banks of Cauvery River, this one takes one’s breath away at the sheer size and beauty associated with the architecture.

Hailed as “Jala sthalam” of the famed panchaboota sthalam (representing earth, water, fire, air and space) and one of the 275 shiva sthalams of Tamil nadu, this temple has a no of long carved corridors and you must see it to believe its ambience and effect it creates on devotees.
The Sivalingam is said to be submerged by water when the neighbouring river stream is in spate and meant to represent God form as water. At other times you can see and feel water inside the garbhagriham where you have to stoop and enter. The Lord's consort is Akhilandeswari , housed in a separate temple.

Samayapuram Mariamman temple

Although we did go Srirangam temple next, there was a very heavy crowd waiting for doors to open at 1 Pm. Hence we quickly left this place to visit Samapayapuram Mariamman temple.
Thousands of padayatra pilgrims had gathered there and it was a sea of yellow.

Momentarily my family got separated in the melee but got reunited inside the garbhagriham. The rush and jostling all was worth it and we had the benign darshan of the red faced Devi soon.
We had a quiet delicious Veg. lunch, Iyer style at Maduraa hotel in this interval.

Srirangam Temple:

Srirangam temple is not just another temple but a small town in itself. It was three days after Vaikunta Ekadashi and naturally there were serpentine queues and it looked like three-four hours at the least and we chose to pay to have special darshan quickly. The paramapada vassal door is open during these days.

The Lord was decorated with Moti( Muttu) and we really felt blessed seeing the deity at very close quarters.

Gunaseelam Perumal temple

On the Trichy stretch, amid greenery and flowing Cauvery canal waters lies a lovely temple dedicated to Prasanna venktachalapathi.

The temple opened at 4.30 pm an we had towait for 30 mins. Again the wait was worth the trouble and we had good darshan with little crowd for a change this time.
It is supposed to be a powerful deity and a no of mentally disturbed and diseased people are said to have been cured by praying here.

We took timeout and wet our feet in cool welcome waters on the way back.



Woraiyur vekkaliamman temple

This is an open to sky temple and we had evening darshan here in the last lap. The amman is said to have saved the villages from mud rain and asked the devotees to build a temple where she would stand unsheltered.
The deity is lovely and so was alankaram. This one is not to be missed by anyone touring this stretch.
Tip:
The second day trip took us 96 kms in a day but we covered 6 temples again between 9 to 7 pm!

It was a memorable trip for the family and we cherished it.
We took the night train back to Chennai.

Some pics from our mobile cameras are shown below


Brihadeeswara temple, Thanjavur




Trichy-Thiruvanaikaval Jambukeswarar temple


Panchanatheeswarar temple


On the way Thnajavur-Trichy



Thanjavur Palace -ceiling


Thanjavur palace and museum


Chandran temple , Thingaloor