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.