MADURAI

                                           

We started our drive from Trichy to our next temple town, Madurai.

The tour company has the tradition of celebrating birthdays / wedding anniversaries of guests, if they happen to fall on the tour days. 

Well, it was my birthday and the tour managers celebrated it in their own sweet way before we started our drive, with a cute gesture - a sash, chocolate and a gift from Veena World for the birthday girl. The group members too showered me with their greetings. 

After an hour, we had a brief coffee halt. When we resumed our drive, I conducted 'Musical Tambola', distributing custom-made 'Housie' (Bingo) tickets I had made from home. 

Everyone participated with gusto and enjoyed the game; the winner got the prize and the rest were satisfied with chocolates.

Singers in the group presented melodious numbers; some shared interesting anecdotes ... there was not a dull moment during the three hour drive.

We reached Hotel Germanus at 2 pm and checked in our rooms; then went for lunch. We just had time to stretch our legs.

We got ready and started for Meenakshi Amman temple at 3.30 pm. Due to traffic, it took us half an hour to reach there. 

The coach dropped us near the temple. We had to walk for ten minutes to the temple.

                                                                           

We were met by our local guide, who was fluent in Hindi, a rarity in Tamil Nadu. Small shops lined the lane to the temple. Our tour manager instructed all of us to leave all our bags, along with whatever cosmetics, snacks, electronic items and footwear in a particular shop. Cell phones were handed over to one of the tour manager who was not coming inside the temple. 

There was strict checking at the entrance. One of our group members unknowingly had his earphones in his pocket. He had to go back to the shop and hand it over there. Only wallet was allowed, and water bottle.

Our guide explained details about the temple complex. 

Meenakshi Amman Temple is a historic Hindu temple dedicated to Meenakshi, a form of Parvati, and her consort, Sundareshwar, a form of Shiva, located at the center of the ancient temple city of Madurai. The goddess Meenakshi is the principal deity of the temple, unlike most Shiva temples in South India where Shiva is the principal deity. with the vimanas above the garbhagrihas (sanctums) of Meenakshi and Sundaresvara gilded with gold. Meenakshi is typically visited before Sundareswarar by the pilgrims, as she is considered the primary deity of the complex. But the shrine for Sundareswarar is the largest within the complex while the shrine for Meenakshi is smaller. Both the shrines have gold plated Vimanam (tower over sanctum) that can be seen from a great distance in the west through the apertures of two successive towers. The tall sculpture of Ganesh carved of single stone located outside the Sundareswarar shrine in the path from Meenashi shrine is called the Mukuruny Vinayakar.

The restored complex now houses 14 gopurams (gateway towers), numerous sculpted pillared halls such as Ayirakkal (1,000 pillar hall), Kilikoondu-mandapam, Golu-mandapam and Pudu-mandapam. Its shrines are dedicated to Hindu deities and Shaivism scholars.

According to a legend, king Malayadwaja Pandya and his wife Kanchanamalai performed a Yajna seeking a son for succession. Instead a daughter was born out of the fire who was already 3 year old and had three breasts. Shiva intervened and told the parents to treat her like a son, assuring them that when she'd meet her husband, she would lose the third breast. They followed the advice. When the girl grew up, the king crowned her as the successor and .... when she met Shiva, his words came true, and she took her true form of Meenakshi.

The marriage of Meenakshi and Shiva was the biggest event, with all gods, goddesses and living beings gathering. Vishnu is believed to be the brother of Meenakshi. (My logical question is, if so, why did the parents perform yajna in the first place!) Vishnu gave her away to Shiva at the wedding. So the temple is not only a major pilgrimage destination within the Shaivism tradition, but also includes Vishnu in sculptures and rituals as he is considered to be Meenakshi's brother.

Thus the temple is also significant for a bonding, protective relationship between Shaivism and Vaishnavism traditions of Hinduism, by making Shiva the husband of Meenakshi, and Vishnu her brother, a significant relationship in Dravidian kinship system. The temple highlights the cultural concept of woman as not only the 'sumangali' or 'auspicious married woman' who lives with her husband but also the independent, organizer of the social connections - who is central to Tamilian life. So Meenakshi herself is a central part of the Shaktism tradition of Hinduism, and represented as the dominant figure of the pair in this temple. The marriage of the goddess and god is a symbolic paradigm for human marriage. The temple thus symbolically celebrates all three of its major traditions.

  

The temple is a popular site for Hindu weddings, where only the short main ceremony is conducted in the temple, followed by other rituals and reception held elsewhere.

Our guide said that the temple doors would open after 5 pm. We had an option of paid / free darisanam (yes, once again). The paid darisanam (viewing) was for Rs 100. Everyone opted for that. I also paid the amount for the both of us without giving a look in my husband's direction. I'm not sure what the others from our group felt about that after the previous day's incident, but they showed no reaction!

We fell in line, waited for half an hour. The door opened. Another 15 minutes, and our turn came. We followed our guide inside the temple.

First, we prayed to Lord Ganapati. Next it was Meenakshi Amman. We prayed to her, and felt blessed to get the sacred 'Meenakshi kunkumam' (kumkum / vermilion sindoor powder). After that, we bowed to Nandi (the sacred bull) and then to Sundareswarar.

As we were coming out, we viewed the golden top through an opening.

Then we did 'saashtanga namaskaram' (complete prostration). Our guide informed us that as we walked out of the temple complex, we should not offer alms, not drink water or eat snacks for some time. We were also supposed to wear footwear only 10 minutes later - all these to retain the positive energy passed into us. 

We came out of the temple, I just managed to get a picture clicked - felt disappointed at not having got a chance to take any pics. 

We then walked back to the shop, collected our possessions, and put on our footwear. It was a sari shop, how could the ladies resist the temptation of delving into the pile of saris and pick up a couple! Madurai is famous for cotton saris. We made sure to buy a few packets of the auspicious Madurai Meenakshi Amman kunkumam (sindoor powder) for my friends as 'prasadam'. And of course all of us ladies in the group decorated our hair (even the ones with short hair) with fragrant jasmine flowers, sold all along the lane. Actually Madurai is famous for 'marikkozhundu' - small fragrant green leaves, which are stringed along with jasmine and orange 'kanakambaram' flowers (and sold as the colorful 'kadambam'). Another specialty of the place is a cooling drink called 'jigar thanda' (meaning cool liver), sold by roadside vendors - the basic ingredients being milk, almond gum, sarsaparilla root syrup and ice cream - I had to resist the temptation of tasting that - I would have done that if I were younger. We have to be careful about what we consume now. 

We also made a round of small shops selling curios. Then we were sent by autorikshaws to our hotel, just twenty minutes away.

                                     

After dinner, we retired for the night.

Next day, as usual, breakfast was a hearty spread, with idlis, vadas, parathas, pongal, with sambar and chutney .... dosas were made to order and served hot; filter coffee to complete the breakfast! Simply divine!

We checked out of the hotel and started for Rameswaram.

TRICHY - SRIRANGAM

After breakfast we started our drive from Kanchipuram to our second destination - Tiruchirapalli or Trichy. It was going to be a long drive - some five hours' driving time. The day's highlight would be the visit to Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam.

The first half of the drive was happily spent in a short siesta - post breakfast. We had a coffee break after two hours.

The remaining part of the drive was lively with songs and 'Food Antakshari'. We were not done when we reached Trichy! Such was the enthusiasm of our 19-member group comprising mostly senior citizens! 

We could see the famous Rock Temple at a distance as we were nearing Trichy.

We checked in at Hotel Ramya's which was located bang in the heart of the city. We noticed the famous Ananda Bhavan Sweets and Snacks shop across the road and decided to check it out at the end of the day.

After a short rest post lunch, we got ready for the 45 minutes drive to Srirangam and reached there at 4 pm.

Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, located in Srirangam, Tiruchirapalli is a Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Ranganatha, a reclining form of Lord Maha Vishnu. Constructed in the Dravidian architectural style, the temple occupies an area of 155 acres with 81 shrines, 21 towers, 39 pavilions, and many water tanks integrated into the complex. It has the unique distinction of being the largest functioning Hindu temple in the world, the still larger Angkor Wat being the largest existing temple.

The temple complex includes shrines dedicated to Vishnu, Lakshmi as well as various Vaishnava scholars and poets. 

There is a 2-storey gopura, with colorful and beautiful sculptures of Gods. 

Another one - 3-storey gopura, equally attractive.
   

Then we entered a beautiful 4-storey gopura. 
  

There is a 7-storey gopura with colorful figurines on each tier; with gods in center and other dolls on either side.

A 13-storey gopura stands majestic, the lane leading to the temple, lined with small shops.

Some of the doors were beautifully carved.

The ceiling and walls had beautiful paintings.

Our local guide met us in the temple. We were informed that there were two options - 'dharma darisanam' (free viewing - of the deity) and 'paid darisanam' (which required every devotee to buy a 'ticket' to have a view of the deity). There were separate queues for the two 'darisanam's - but of course! Anyone can guess which queue would be shorter. (Most of the famous temples in India have this system; actually there is yet another 'darisanam' available only for VIPs, where they would not be paying for the 'ticket' but would be directly taken in front of the deity.)

We were informed that 'dharma darisanam' might take two hours in the queue, and the paid one, just an hour. Most of the members of our group opted to shell out Rs. 250 each for the shorter queue - except two. No prizes for guessing who they were! My better half has never approved of this sort of distinction in the abode of God. Whatever we want to offer in the 'Hundi' / as puja, has been of our own accord. We have never availed of privileges in places of worship, nor paid a price as we believe that everyone is equal in front of God. But we were in a group this time, so I tried to mumble that we should follow the group. But he silenced me by saying that I could join the others if I wanted but he wouldn't. I was between the devil and the deep sea. How could I leave my 76 plus husband to be by himself in a serpentine queue? I tried to explain to the two tour managers in an apologetic tone that he was just sticking to his principles. They were very understanding - one of them told us that he would wait for us, while the other would accompany the group. Of course we had their phone numbers in case we needed his help.

Before we stood in queue, we managed to take a few pics. No photography is allowed thereafter.

Pillars and sculptures of Garuda mandapa were beautiful.

We could see a golden Vimana over the sanctum amidst the gopurams. 

The line of pillars looked majestic. People just squatted and relaxed peacefully, wherever they could.

The famous 'Aayiram kaal mandapam' (Thousand pillared hall) is a theater-like structure, made from granite. It has a central wide aisle with seven side aisles on each side with pillars set in a square pattern. But it was  closed to public, so we were unlucky. 

Well, both of us joined the long queue - the only consolation was we were armed with water bottles and snacks to energize us. There was provision for sitting on benches along the queue area at intervals. Unknown faces exchanged greetings and smiles and words of concern. There were people of all ages - right from little kids to old people. The line would be stationary for some ten minutes and then suddenly start moving briskly for a few minutes; again stop. This pattern continued. One hour .... we could see our group members exiting from another end after 'darshan'. Another 20 minutes ... we realized that the curtains would be down for pooja at 6 pm for some half an hour or so. If we couldn't make it before 6, we'd be left twiddling our thumbs for God-knows-how-long! Luck was on our side - we had darshan of the reclining Sri Ranganathaswamy in his full glory - for less than a minute and we were out by 6 pm. I thanked my stars for helping us save face. 

Our tour manager met us and led us out. 

The others had gone into the shops lining the area and were busy shopping. Around 7 pm, we headed back to our hotel.

After freshening up, we made a dash to Ananda Bhavan sweet shop across the road and made our purchases of South Indian snacks.

I had a discussion with my better half about the evening's incident. I was in full agreement with his principles - all are equal in places of worship - there should definitely be no glaring divide between the 'haves' and 'have-nots'. The temple could instead charge something like convenience fees - for the differently-abled, senior citizens, and couples with little kids. This could be a better and fairer mode of splitting the queue. But the point to moot was, as we were travelling with a group now, we would have to compromise and go with the crowd. We could not repeat that in other temples too. He wasn't too pleased but I could sense that he might fall in line if I took up the reins the next time.

After dinner in our hotel, we retired for the night.

We checked out of our hotel after breakfast and boarded our coach. We had a temple visit at Viralimalai, a town located 28 km from Trichy.

The famous Lord Shanmuganathar temple is situated on the top of the granite hill at Viralimalai. Some renovation work was going on at that time.

We had to climb 300 steps to reach the temple. We halted in between to catch our breath.

The temple was once a renowned seat of the Bharatanatyam dance form. Viralimalai is also home to an exclusive kuravanji dance-drama. The kuravanji named after Viralimalai has had an unbroken tradition of presentation for nearly two centuries. Till 1993, the Kuravanji was played as an all-night show to large crowds, on Maha Shivaratri night, in front of the mandapam at the foot of the hill.

The ceiling and walls had beautiful paintings.

The view from atop the hill was breathtaking.

After offering our prayers to the deity Lord Muruga also known as Karthikeya, we came down the steps. 

The sides of this hill are covered with trees. We were lucky to spot a couple of peacocks among the trees. Peacocks are said to be abundant in Viralimalai  which is a sanctuary for the birds. The town, temple and peacock sanctuary have been declared and funded as a Heritage Place by order of the Governor.

We had a look of satisfaction when we came down the steps, specially me - I felt blessed as it was my birthday.


We then started our drive to our next temple town, Madurai.

KANCHIPURAM

What a day to choose to post the first of my blog posts on our visit to the temple towns of Tamil Nadu! Yes it is today that the temples in India have reopened after closure for more than 2 1/2 months!

We had finished our tour of Sri Lanka - Maldives by the end of January, 2020. We were planning another tour in mid February - yes, back-to-back tours - I agree. This time we wanted to do a short one, not too hectic either, but with a difference. We zeroed in on a temple tour of Tamil Nadu - a seven day tour, one day in each temple town of Kanchipuram, Trichy, Madurai, Rameswaram, Thanjavur, and two days in Puducherry, rounding up with a visit to Mahabalipuram. We had been to most of these temple towns as kids - that was a long time ago. Now we could get mini bites of each of these places, which would actually require two to three days in themselves if we had to do complete justice to each. The icing on the cake would be our visit to Puducherry - the place where we got engaged, more than 48 years ago, when it used to be called Pondicherry. We were looking forward to that nostalgic moment. 

Our tour was from 15 - 22 February, 2020. Actually Corona had started clawing its way into India towards the end of January in a few places. We were apprehensive but chose to go ahead with the tour as Tamil Nadu had not been affected. Looking back, we are glad we made it! We had carried home-made masks - just in case. 

At Pune airport, everything was normal, no masks, nothing.

We took the early morning flight to Chennai. There we joined our group from Mumbai - we were a group of 19. Our two tour managers met us, and we got into the luxury coach which was to drive us during the entire tour. We enjoyed the packed breakfast and juice on the way.  

Kanchipuram was the first temple town in our itinerary. We reached there after a drive of an hour and a half.

We reached our hotel before 11 am, checked in our rooms around noon. 

After a sumptuous lunch and short siesta, we were ready for the day's temple visit. 

Kanchipuram is a temple town. We had done research on Google and listed out the famous temples - Vishnu Kanchi temple, Ekambareswarar temple, Ulagalanda Perumal temple, Kailasanathar temple, Kanchi Kamakshi temple, Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham..... As per our itinerary, we were going to visit only Vishnu Kanchi Temple. We tried to put in our request to the tour manager to drive around and at least show us the temples in the town. He tried to explain that the temples are sprawling and we cannot have a view of them while driving. Some of us remained unconvinced. After coming all the way to this place, visiting just one temple?

As we were driving, we could see temples, big and small.

We reached the Vishnu Kanchi Temple just before it opened at 4 pm. In all big temples in South India, the first thing you see is the tall Raja Gopuram.

In this temple it has 7 floors and accords you a majestic welcome. 

                                       

Just after the Raja Gopuram is a smaller pavilion on four pillars. The temple is in front of that.

The tall Dhwajastambha or the flagstaff can be seen clearly.

Our local guide first took us to Ananth Saras or Tank, with a submerged temple. 

In the midst of a large tank, is a small temple, with steps all around. The view is simply breath-taking.

It is said that the original idol of Vishnu at this temple was made of fig wood. Later it was replaced by a metal idol and the original idol was put in a silver casket and laid in this tank. It is taken out once in forty years for cleaning and worship, which is celebrated as a great festival. It was last held in July 2019.

There are smaller temples around the tank, dedicated to different forms of Vishnu. Beneath a tree, there are a lot of Naga Stones smeared with turmeric.

Before visiting the main temple, we visited the 100 pillar hall, on the left of the Raja Gopuram. We were not thrilled with its appearance, due to the metal mesh all around but we were proved wrong. 

We had to buy just a 5 Rs ticket, if we wanted to take photos.

It was definitely worth it - here each carved pillar was so intricate.

Actually, the 100 Pillar Hall was originally a wedding hall, with a four-pillared raised 'mandap' in the middle. The remaining 96 pillars are a matrix of 8 rows and 12 columns.

The middle pillars are double pillars and have the formation of an army on horses.

Such exotic carvings on stone!

Simply breath-taking!

And the outer pillars are decorated with auspicious signs on them.

At the corner, you can see a stone chain hanging, a masterpiece of stone carving, with an intricately carved bud.

We could see Tamil script on the walls in those ancient times.

The temple is supposed to be located on an elephant-shaped hill called Hastagiri. But you cannot make it out except for the unusual height of the Garbhagriha.

We climbed up a flight of golden stairs - carved metal stairs, which were not easy to negotiate. There was a queue, but it kept moving and we managed to have a good darshan of the huge resplendent standing deity of lord Vishnu - known here as Devarajaswamy. Garlands of tulsi are offered by devotees. Colorful paintings adorn the temple. Photography is prohibited inside the temple.

Next, we were to buy a 2 Rs ticket to go in to see the famous lizards of this temple. We were informed that these are giant golden lizards carved on the ceiling behind the Garbhagriha, which you can touch for good luck. The long queue put us off - we had had a long day - having been in three cities that day! Remember we had wanted to drive to all temples in the town? Nobody uttered a word about it later, being totally fagged out.

But when our tour manager mentioned about the visit to Silk Weaving Center, where we could shop for the famous Kanchipuram silk / cotton saris and dress materials, the ladies in the group sat up re-energized, with a sparkle in their eyes and eagerness writ large in their faces.

The weaving center was a very modest one - with a single loom for demonstration. However, it offered a large variety of saris / dress materials at various price ranges; no one left the shop empty handed!

We were only too happy to retire to our rooms after dinner in our hotel.

The next morning after a hearty breakfast which included the specialty of the city - Kanchipuram idli,  and then we started our drive to Trichy.