After long time, thought to go out of buzy and boring life in Bangalore. I like journey and visiting places. This time I thought to see places with historical & Architectural values.
After long.. long.. googling, finally I chose Kumbakonam.
Kumbakonam is located around 380 km from Bangalore. Temple City is another name of Kumbakonam. There are many temples around Kumbakonam dated back to Chola kings’ Time. Out of these temples, Gangai konda Cholapuram, Darasuram and Thanjore are in the list of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites. I have already visited Thanjore some time back. So I thought to cover other two during this trip.
Out of my googling effort, I got to know there are good beaches nearby. So I decided to visit Poompuhar, a port during Chola’s Empire and Tranquebar, having Danish fort in the beach.
My journey started from Bangalore to Mayiladuthurai in Tamil Nadu’s SETC bus. The next day morning I reached Mayiladuthurai. After a short nap at hotel I started my tour.
First I went to Chidambaram to visit Great Nataraja Temple. Here we can see Lord Shiva in his Ananda Tandava pose.
Visit http://wikitravel.org/en/Chidambaram for more info.
After darshan at Nataraja temple, I went to Poompuhar. For most of the journey in this tour, I used Tamil Nadu Government run buses. Bus fares are very less compare to other state run buses. If you know the route and if you can manage with Tamil language use these buses instead of Auto or taxi.
Poompuhar was a port during Chola’s Empire. Kaveripattinam is another name of this place. It was 4 years completed after Tsunami on the day I was here. Many localities were discussing about this, I understand that many of them still could not forget about that Tsunami.
Bay of Bengal’s waves are of very high and travelling very fast. Big rocks are placed across the coastal line to avoid high flow of water in the land.
Another view of Beach
Old and new Light Houses in the beach
Nothing much to see here except the beach. I visited Silappathikara Art Gallery apart from the beach.
Visit http://www.travelmasti.com/domestic/tamilnadu/poompuhar.htm for more info
My next destination was Tranquebar. Another name of this place is Tharangambadi.
There was no direct bus to Tharangambadi from Poompuhar. I got down Sirkali bus from Poompuhar at a small village Kurivi. We can see many buses to Nagapattinam from this place which goes via Tharangambadi.
The Danish fort, in the beach of Tharangambadi is dated back to 1620 AD.
It was almost 6.00pm when I reach there. The Danish fort was just about to close. I requested the employees there to see the fort. But I could not make it. So I had some snaps of the fort from outside.
Apart from this I visited Danish Church and The Masilamani Nathar Temple of 1306 AD Pandian era which is heavily eroded by the sea.
Masilamani Nathar Temple
A View of Beach
Danish Church
Visit http://wikitravel.org/en/Tranquebar for more info.
With that first day is completed on my two days tour. Next day I went to Kumbakonam from Mayiladuthurai to see temples around Kumbakonam. My first priority was Gangai konda Cholapuram and Darasuram.
First went to Gangai. This is around 40 km from Kumbakonam, there was no direct bus to this place as bridge on Kollidam River is damaged at Anakarai. Anakarai is an island in Kollidam River. Finally I reached Gangai konda Cholapuram from Anakarai in an auto.
Gangai temple was built by Rajendra Chola during 11th century. Gangai and Darasuram are living temples; still pujas are performed here unlike in my other archaeological sites.
Big Nandhi
View of Temple from entrance
Another view of Temple
Visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangaikonda_Cholapuram for more info.
Darasuram temple is located just outside the kumbakonam town about 4 km away and was built in 12 century AD by the Cholas. We can see Kumbeswara Temple in Kumbakonam on the way to Darasuram.
Art in Kudya style
Art in Kudya style in the Museum inside Temple
There are many Nandhis around temple which were destroyed
See Elephant and Lion on the same sculpture
Ganapati on copper Dwajastambha
Pillars inside Temple
Look Elephants and Horses in this sculpture
Visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darasuram for more info.
After visiting these two World Heritage Sites I visited Famous temples of Kumbakonam. Sarangapani temple, Kumbeswarar temple and Chakrapani temple. All these temples are located around 1 to 2km from Kumbakonam bus stand.
Car of Lord or Radha of Sriramgapani Temple
Inside view of Sriramgapani Temple
Mahamaham Tank. Kumbamela happens here once in every puskaram or 12 years
Gopura of Kumbeswarar Temple
Temple's Elephant at Kumbeswarar Temple
Apart from these temples there are many Shiva and Vishnu temples and Navagraha temples are around this temple town.
Facilities available
Accommodation - Good Accommodation facilities are available in Kumbakonam and Mayiladuthurai
Food - Good
Transportation - State run Buses are available in most of the places. Used Autos in Some places
Vedam is a vellage near Srikalahasti in Chitoor district. It is around 6km drive from Kalahasti. There is a famous temple for Sri Kalika mata in this village. Many devotees visit this temple during Tuesdays and fridays to have their diparadhana puja. During this puja devotees lit lamps on a lemon base.
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.
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.
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.
Goddess Chengalamma Parameswari manifested herself in the village of Sullurpeta on the Kolkata-Chennai highway and the temple for her was built on the bank of the Kanlangi River. History tells us that chengalamma idol was found in the river by few boys who were swimming and they brought it to the current location during the fourth or fifth centuries. People also refer to her as the village goddess “Tenkali”. With the passage of time, she is being worshipped regularly by devotees as Chengalamma. Devotees turn up in large number to witness “Chengalamma Jatara” (fair).
Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary is popular for the largest habitats for pelicans in Southeast Asia, It is home to many other native as well as migratory birds. Some of the readily seen birds of the Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary are Babblers, Pelicans, Flamingos, Open Billed Stork, Coot, Night Heron and Waders. Apart from housing some of the rarest species of the avian population, the Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary is home to many mammals like jackals, slender loris and reptiles like monitor lizard, tortoises and snakes. There are some huts and view points along the Sanctuary to view the birds peacefully.
Pradesh. This is famous for Sri Mallikarjuna swamy and Kamakshi amma temple. In tretayuga Mahamuni Kasyapa Brahma performed yagna and pleased Lord Mallikarjuna Swamy thus this place is named as ‘Yagnavatika Jonnawada’. Sri Mallikarjuna Swamy Kamakhsi tai grant to the innumerable devotes their desires, as their God head. Since then he continues conferring boons and his blessings on his devotees. This temple is constructed in the year 1150( Tretayuga). The goddess Kamkshi is belived as an incarnation of Shakti. A ‘Sri Chakram’ was installed here by Sri Jagadguru Sankaracharya. Brahma Rushi Sri Kashyap Mahamuni visited Bhoolokam (The Earth) and wanted to perform Yagna and chosen north of vedadri as Yagna Vatika (place to perform yagna) After successful completion of the Yagna a bright light appeared. It has spread over the whole bhoolokam. Later Lord Eswara appeared as Lord Mallikarjuna, who came out from fire of Yagna.
as around 9 am when the dharshan was completed. Then we spent time on verifying boards available in the temple about Dhwadasa (12) Jyothirlinga temples dedicated to lord Shiva and Astadasa (18) shakthi peethams dedicated to Ammavaru. I counted and wondered to see that I have already visited almost one third of them. Mean while Amma and wife lit Karthika deepam in the temple.
