Tour in Chitoor District and Sripuram/Vellore

Last December 25th, we planned to visit Kanipakam and Ardhagiri. We decided to go some other pilgrim places too in Chittoor District of Andhra Pradesh and then visit Sripuram golden temple in Tamil Nadu to complete all in a day trip.

We booked a cab and started from Srikalahasti in the morning Via Tirupati, Puttoor. Our plan is to visit Vepanjeri (Near Chitoor) and then to go Kanipakam from there. Vepamjeri is near Gangadhara Nellore and Chitoor which has Asta Lakshmi Temple and Dasavatara temple. Visited Venupopala swami temple in Karvetnagaram, which is on the way to reach Vepamjeri from Puttoor. This is one of the famous temples of historical importance in this district.

Dasavatara temple has idols of Dasavatarams of Lord Vishnu; It also has small temples for many other gods. It has huge 33 feet status of Ranganatha Swami. There is garden with 27 trees representing the 27 stars exercising their sway over the destinies of mankind. And Asta Lakshmi Temple has separate small temples for Asta Lakshmi Matas. Check http://www.vepanjeri.com/ for more details. 

After visiting Vepanjeri we had our breakfast @ Chittoor and went to Kanipakam. As it was weekend and holiday there was huge crowd in the temple, we went for special darshan and completed our puja to Lord Ganesha in an Hour. Then we started our journey to Ardhagiri to visit Ardhagiri Sri Verranjanjaneya Swami Temple.

According to legend about Ardhagiri, during Tretayuga, Hanuman brought Sanjeeva Parvatham in order to save Lakshmana during a war when Lakshmana fell unconscious. During the journey, half of Sanjeeva Parvatham fell, and the place where it landed came is known as Aragonda. Aragonda, initially is called as Arakonda (In Telugu language, "Ara" (sounds A'raw)means 'Half' and "Konda" (sounds Kon'Da) means Hill or Mountain). With the time, the people changed their way of pronouncing this word "Arakonda" as "Aragonda" which is now the name of the village under this hill. This hill is famous with name "Ardhagiri" (Ardha means Half and Ge'ree means mountain). In Ardhagiri, it is believed that Sanjeevaraya Pushkarini (pond containing the holy water) never gets dried nor spoiled, even when kept for long periods of time. When devotees drink this theertham (or holy water) from the Sanjeevaraya Pushkarini, all types of diseases are getting cured. We completed our Darshan here very quickly as they was not much crowd on that day. We took some theertham in a can for home.

Our next destination was Sripurm which has Golden temple of Goddess Lakshmi Devi near Vellore in Tamil Nadu. We reached Vellore around 3.30pm from Aragonda and had of Lunch in Vellore. As it was just 4.00pm and as we want to visit Golden temple during lightings we went to Vellore fort to spend an hour or so…

The Vellore Fort's ownership passed from Vijayanagara Kings, to the Bijapur Sultans, to Marathas, to the Carnatic Nawabs and finally to the British, who held the fort until India gained independence. During British rule, the Tippu Sultan's family and the last king of Sri Lanka, Sri Vikrama Rajasinha were held in as royal prisoners in the fort. The fort houses a Museum, Christian church, a Muslim mosque and a Hindu temple, the latter of which is famous for its magnificent carvings. The Museum was already closed by the time we visited and as we do not have much time we did not visited Temple or Mosque. We just went on thru Fort walls to see surroundings. There is an artificial cannel kinda construction around the fort that might be created as a security measures. Now this cannel is used for Boating.

After the Fort visit, we went to Siripuram Golden Temple. Mobile Phones or any other electronic devices are not allowed inside the temple. You need to walk thru big Star shaped path to reach Golden Temple. The Temple was really beautiful with Lightings around it. And the Shadow of the Golden Temple (Elephants, Pillars etc) in the Small artificial lake surrounding it should not be missed. But one thing I did not like is the high publicity of the ‘Amma’ inside the temple. Check Some photos of the Temple here.

Nandi hills and surrounding places

It was a long pending trip with entire family. As my youngest brother coming from Hyderabad to Bangalore for holiday we asked our parents also to come here so that we go somewhere around Bangalore

We initially thought to go to Nandi hills but later thought about other places too, after thinking of many places and searching in internet and blogs we decided 3 places – Nandhi hills, Bannergatta National Park and Sivasamudhra. Ha.. finally freezed to the initial place Nandhi Hills as it is nearby from my place, Sahakara Nagar. We decided to go early morning to see sun rise @ Nandhi hills and then visit to Bogha Nandheeswara Temple, Mudhena halli and Devanahalli fort.

We started around 4.30 am from home and reached Nandi hills by 5.30 am. It was butiful and my parents could not come out of the vehicle as it was too cold and totally covered with fog. We waited in the vehicle for some time as the ticket counter was not yet opened to go to the top of the hill. It was 6 am by the time we reach th top of the hill after getting the ticket.

Just after coming out of the vehicle, we went to the back side of KSTDC's Hotel Mayura Pine Top for proper view of Sun rise... But as we are not sure of the sun rise view point we came back to the initial enquired for the Sun rise view point after having hot tea. They said it would be 7.00/7.30 Am by the sun rises. So we had an hour or so to roam around before the sun rise. We left our parents at a hotel as they were feeling too cold in that environment and went across the temples and parks. We could not see others/places clearly as there was too much fog.

It was almost 7.30 am, but still no sun rise... so we had our breakfast and then waiting for sun rise... Around 8.00 am we could see only partial sun rise. It was Okay. We waited for Sun rise at Tippu drop till 10.30 am, but still no luck. Then we decided to go back... We went to Yoga Nandhiswara temple and Tippu Summer Palace while coming back to the base. Check some more snaps below.

Bhoga Nandhiswara temple is in Nandi village which is around 8Km from the base of Nandi hills. This is historical temple with high architecture values. This temple constructed in ninth century in Dravidian style and upgraded by 5 kings in different periods of time. The courtyard surrounding the temple is huge and the temple itself has several separate areas with small temples. During our visit, surroundings were too oily may be because of Karthika Pournami festival. The main complex of the temple houses a statue of Shiva and Parvati in the same stone with a intricately carved Kalyana Mantapa in front and lots of pillars; the Kalyana Mantapa in front of middle temple looks similar to the Belur/Halebidu built by the Hoysalas with micro carvings. A separate area has a dance platform and a place for the king to sit and watch the performance. The large peaceful tank/Kalyani is in the next area. There is good garden maintained outside the temple. You can spend at least half a day here visiting temple and enjoying the nature outside the temple.

Our next destination was Mudhena halli which is around 5Km from Nandi village. It is the birthplace of Sir. M. Vishveswarayya. His ancestral home, where he was born, has been preserved for public viewing. There is a small museum with the items he used. We can see his Bhata Rathna medal in this museum. And there are many photos of him with historical leaders and kings of that time. And Vishveswarayya's samadhi is also nearby.

Initially we thought to go to some small waterfalls near Nandi village while coming back as pointed by my younger brother. But as we are not sure of the route for this waterfalls plan and started journey back to Devanahalli.

Devanahalli fort is a small fort with only huge walls covering small village. We can just go to the top of these fort walls and spend some time over there. Then while coming back to Bangalore we visited Tippu's birth place near by the Devanahalli fort.