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.