Yes, we are in Hyderabad. The flight from Boston to London was quiet. The service as usual was good. Food was so so. Srikanth suggested that I have a Bagel before we boarded. Gayatri packed a Chappathi. We had both - so the Airline's food was not enjoyed. The middle seat was vacant, hence we could stretch our legs better. The lay over in London was 6 hours. It felt very long. Rao was watching TV whenever he could.
Once we boarded the flight to Hyderabad, we sat in the plane on the runway for a long time. The plane was filled with noisy Indians (!!!). Many infants and toddlers. Continuos crying and restlessness. I was thinking od Sharanya who will be travelling soon. But she being a gem of a baby, may not cry and instead may charm everyone - these were my thoughts. The pilot announced many times that there was a problem in loading the luggage and hence there was going to be a few minutes delay. Those many apologies and announcements added upto a 2 hour delay.
We reached Hyd. 1 1/2 hours late. The food was great. Juices and water were continuously served. The staff was charming. My next seat was occupied by a young woman from Chicago. Her parents and siblings all live in Hyd. We had great conversation and I took her e-mail address.
The new airport is huge, but due to thick fog, I could not see the surroundings much. We took a Taxi to Secunderabad. The first 10 kms, everything looked clean and beautiful. Suddenly, it hit reality. Stray pigs pulling garbage out from corners, people dumping their household garbage on to the streets etc. The civic sense, I felt, was the same as it was 40 years ago. As long as the garbage left your house, you don't worry about it's destination. My next post will be about co-existance in Hyerabad.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Yatra 3 - preface
This time, we plan to see Mahalakshmi in Kolhapur, the other 8 Jyothirlingams and Ashta Vinayakas in Maharashtra, Dwaraka in Gujarat, Ayodhya, Naimisharanya, Varanasi and Puri Jagannatha. On Sivarathri, we plan to be ibn Varanasi. We collected the sands from Rameswaram and it will taken to the Visweswara in Varanasi.
In addition, Nirmala's wish is to go to Srisailam again. That we will do first since it would make the three of us visiting all the 12 Jyothirlingams together. The Tungabhadra pusharams begin on Dec 10th or so. We want to have a dip in that river at that time. We plan to meet Nirmala in Kurnool and proceed on our journey from there. This time, we have some wonderful people taking care of our house in our absence.
As usual, our trip began with our driving to Boston area to be with our daughter and family for a few days and fly to Hyderabad from Boston. On the way we visited the Rajarajeswari Temple in Rush, NY briefly. Visit the site at www.srividya.org for details about the Temple.
In addition, Nirmala's wish is to go to Srisailam again. That we will do first since it would make the three of us visiting all the 12 Jyothirlingams together. The Tungabhadra pusharams begin on Dec 10th or so. We want to have a dip in that river at that time. We plan to meet Nirmala in Kurnool and proceed on our journey from there. This time, we have some wonderful people taking care of our house in our absence.
As usual, our trip began with our driving to Boston area to be with our daughter and family for a few days and fly to Hyderabad from Boston. On the way we visited the Rajarajeswari Temple in Rush, NY briefly. Visit the site at www.srividya.org for details about the Temple.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Saying hello between yatras
Not much progress with our planning for yatra 3 yet. In the meantime, let me just mention the following:
During the last trip, I saw the most Banyan trees along the road in parts of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. I found the link to banyan tree from Google search, but the photos are unlimited. Since it is in Google, I assumed that I could show it in blog.
In my high school, there was a huge tree at the back end of the 22 acre school compound. We used to tie the sturdy hanging roots tightly, make it into a swing and take turns in sitting on it pushing one another. The red ants would be crawling and sometimes biting us. As I watched each banyan tree on the road, I went back to my school days.
We had no TVs to watch. Every evening, we would go to the local Temple, after the regular pradakshinams and all, we would play outside until dusk, bring home some Vibhuti and Kumkumam (given by the priest) as a proof to show my grandmother that we really went inside the Temple. Then, after supper, finish the home work, sing some songs and doze off on the beds. The beds were cots with a light mattresses. We enjoyed sleeping outdoors on them, looking at the sky, the Moon and the stars. We could smell the jasmine and other flower fragrances from the yard whenever there was a breeze. If it rained, we all would run indoors with our cots and beds. Each of those events were very exciting. Now, we always sleep indoors, with closed doors and ceiling fans going at full blast.
Everywhere, people are very busy these days. All the luxuries of those times have become neccessities of the present. So,we are busy making money and working hard to fulfil all those needs. Not much time left to spend with family and friends, unless you are retired. I am so happy that I have friends and family who are looking forward to spending their precious time with us when we visit India. Not everyone is so lucky. Save some time each day for your close family and friends.
During the last trip, I saw the most Banyan trees along the road in parts of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. I found the link to banyan tree from Google search, but the photos are unlimited. Since it is in Google, I assumed that I could show it in blog.
In my high school, there was a huge tree at the back end of the 22 acre school compound. We used to tie the sturdy hanging roots tightly, make it into a swing and take turns in sitting on it pushing one another. The red ants would be crawling and sometimes biting us. As I watched each banyan tree on the road, I went back to my school days.
We had no TVs to watch. Every evening, we would go to the local Temple, after the regular pradakshinams and all, we would play outside until dusk, bring home some Vibhuti and Kumkumam (given by the priest) as a proof to show my grandmother that we really went inside the Temple. Then, after supper, finish the home work, sing some songs and doze off on the beds. The beds were cots with a light mattresses. We enjoyed sleeping outdoors on them, looking at the sky, the Moon and the stars. We could smell the jasmine and other flower fragrances from the yard whenever there was a breeze. If it rained, we all would run indoors with our cots and beds. Each of those events were very exciting. Now, we always sleep indoors, with closed doors and ceiling fans going at full blast.
Everywhere, people are very busy these days. All the luxuries of those times have become neccessities of the present. So,we are busy making money and working hard to fulfil all those needs. Not much time left to spend with family and friends, unless you are retired. I am so happy that I have friends and family who are looking forward to spending their precious time with us when we visit India. Not everyone is so lucky. Save some time each day for your close family and friends.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
In general...........
Please note that I added some photos to my post of Aug 29, 2008 (other Temples etc.)
Our next yatra planning is under way now. Before I go into those details,I want to mention a few tips.
Plan ahead: Look for bargain airfare if you are from outside India. We started with British Airways in 2006. The main reason being, to fly from Boston and they have direct flights to Chennai from London. No Mumbai mess to face!!!
The airlines staff was curteous, the food was good, the baggage was not lost, it arrived on time at both ends. So, again in 2007, we booked by BA. Now it is 2008. We are doing the same. What I did not know was that they also have provision for the frequent flyer miles. You have to sign up for it under 'executive member'. With that fancy name, I did not identify it as a frequent flyer type. So, I lost mileage for my previous trips. Now that they will start flights to Hyderabad in December, it is even more convinient for us.
Shop around:
Check other airlines also for comparison. It is worth the time. Some airlines match with any other web-published lower price if you challenge within a limited time specified on their websites. (you have to search for the small print though). You should have already confirmed a ticket with them before you claim.
If you are not on a limited budget, want to go with a group, then there are many organizations that travel in groups. For us, that was more expensive. So, we preferred to book our own air travel and use the local travel agents in India for domestic arrangements. Some of my friends went with the Chinmaya mission group and had great time.
Take your medications, vitamins, special snacks and so on. Have a small first-aid kit also. Carry a small notebook to keep tag of the day's events.
In Kerala hotels, they served warm/hot water to drink. Some added herbs. I enjoyed the idea. But if you don't like, you can always buy a bottle of water. Nirmala did not want the parboiled rice. But was happy to see that they had regular white rice - just ask for it.
Now our next yatra is to see more of the Jyothir lingams. As you know, we covered Rameswaram, Srisailam, Varanasi and Kedarnath. There are 8 more to see. Also like to see the 5 vinayakas and Shiridi. If any of my readers out there have any suggestions or comments please feel free to leave them here. We need all the help we can get. We are considering Vijaya or Lakshmi travels in Chennai. If anyone had any experience (good or bad) please let us know.
Also, do you have any comments on Karunamayi ashram and their activities (near Nellore)?
Our next yatra planning is under way now. Before I go into those details,I want to mention a few tips.
Plan ahead: Look for bargain airfare if you are from outside India. We started with British Airways in 2006. The main reason being, to fly from Boston and they have direct flights to Chennai from London. No Mumbai mess to face!!!
The airlines staff was curteous, the food was good, the baggage was not lost, it arrived on time at both ends. So, again in 2007, we booked by BA. Now it is 2008. We are doing the same. What I did not know was that they also have provision for the frequent flyer miles. You have to sign up for it under 'executive member'. With that fancy name, I did not identify it as a frequent flyer type. So, I lost mileage for my previous trips. Now that they will start flights to Hyderabad in December, it is even more convinient for us.
Shop around:
Check other airlines also for comparison. It is worth the time. Some airlines match with any other web-published lower price if you challenge within a limited time specified on their websites. (you have to search for the small print though). You should have already confirmed a ticket with them before you claim.
If you are not on a limited budget, want to go with a group, then there are many organizations that travel in groups. For us, that was more expensive. So, we preferred to book our own air travel and use the local travel agents in India for domestic arrangements. Some of my friends went with the Chinmaya mission group and had great time.
Take your medications, vitamins, special snacks and so on. Have a small first-aid kit also. Carry a small notebook to keep tag of the day's events.
In Kerala hotels, they served warm/hot water to drink. Some added herbs. I enjoyed the idea. But if you don't like, you can always buy a bottle of water. Nirmala did not want the parboiled rice. But was happy to see that they had regular white rice - just ask for it.
Now our next yatra is to see more of the Jyothir lingams. As you know, we covered Rameswaram, Srisailam, Varanasi and Kedarnath. There are 8 more to see. Also like to see the 5 vinayakas and Shiridi. If any of my readers out there have any suggestions or comments please feel free to leave them here. We need all the help we can get. We are considering Vijaya or Lakshmi travels in Chennai. If anyone had any experience (good or bad) please let us know.
Also, do you have any comments on Karunamayi ashram and their activities (near Nellore)?
Monday, September 8, 2008
Map of the major cities - yatra 2
This was my daughter Gayatri's idea to let the readers that are not familiar with the area know 'where is what'. In the future, I will add more.
View Larger Map
View Larger Map
Friday, September 5, 2008
Finale - Sulochana joins us
Kanchipuram (Kanchi)
Four temples: The following are famous and there are many other sacred places to visit here.
The first time I visited Kanchi was in 1962. My friend Ramamani wanted to buy her wedding sarees there. We took a bus from Tirupathi and there were three of us and we enjoyed the adventure trip. A local guide took us to the four Temples and the saree shops. We found out that all the best selection was sent to the big stores in Chennai. The next trip was with the children and Sulochana and her husband Krishna Pillai in 1993. We still have fond memories of that trip. We never tried saree shopping again.
Ekambreswara (Shiva), Kamakshi (Parvathi), Varadarajaswami (Vishnu) and Kanchi peetham. The two Peethadhipathi swamis were just finishing their discourses in two different rooms when we arrived. We just could enter one room. Rao talked to the older one for a few minutes. We came out and I sat in front of the huge statue of the previous(periavar)swami and the place was charged with His energy. I was blessed with His darsan in 1993 before He went into samadhi.
We also visited a Temple of Rajarajeswari in Nemali near Kanchi.
Rao first heard about this location from someone in the Rajarajeswari Peetham in Rush, NY and after a lot of inquiries found the exact location. Also, this time Nirmala made sure we got a driver that was a good driver, polite and knew where he was going. Rao was thrilled. He offered the huge package of Hershey's miniatures that he was holding on tight to the priest. We sat on the floor for the pooja. There were a few other devotees in the room. The priest did not offer our candy to the Goddess Bala. He saved it for a time in the future? It was like a shrine in a home. We, the three women did not feel any Temple vibrations at all!! They tried to sell their brochures etc. after the darsan.
Tiruttani:
For Nirmala, Rao and myself this concludes our visit of the six Murugan (Subrahmanya) temples.
In our student days and later on while I was on the teaching staff of SV university, we made several visits to this Subrahmanya Temple. It hasn't changed much.
This was one day trip. The next day trip the four of us made is the following.
The next list:
Kaanipakam: This place isvery near Chittoor. Sulochana was excited because she grew up in Chittoor. here, the temple is of Vinayaka.
Kanipakam is a small village on the bank of Bahuda River.
"Kani" means wetland and "Pakam" means flow of water into wetland. The idol here is 'swayambhu' meaning self manifested in the local Bahuda river(baahu means arm, there is a long sthala purana that goes with this name). The water is supposed to be as sacred as the holy waters of Ganga (Ganges).
They say that the idol is still growing in size. At present, we can see the knees and the abdomen of the idol. Sri Varasiddhi Vinayaka as up-holder of truth.
If there is a dispute, people in the dispute take a holy dip in the temple tank and swear before the Lord. It is taken as gospel truth (and then what happens?). I think the holy water is like a truth serum and the people involved tell 'the whole truth, nothing but the truth'.
I just want to mention again the other places we visited. No details remembered.
Arthagiri, Ponnai (Navagraha), Vepanjeri (Temples for planets, Dasa avataaras, Lakshminarayana, Ashta Lakshmi).
Tengaal (brass Venkateswara) , Samadhi of a Yogi (a mouna swami)
Tiruvannamalai: (Ramana maharshi aashram), Arunachalam
The first time I visited this place was in 1961 when I organised a trip as a student. Ramamani was already a lecturer in the Women's college and she was our staff member in charge. That is when I met her and we became very good friends.
This time, we saw everything leisurely. The place has grown a lot and just beautiful and as peaceful as it was in the sixties. We did the parikrama (by car ofcourse) around the hill. It was the month of Karthikam and the famous karthika deepam(light) was seen everywhere from Tirupathi onwards.
Arunachalam and Sri Ramana Maharshi ashram
One must make this trip in their life time. The ashram is so peaceful inside as well as outside. Absolutely no disturbance of any kind. Please click on the names to see more details
Golden Temple of Lakshmi Narayani:
This is a more recent addition to the area. Very modern, situated in a park like setting. Ample parking for cars and buses outside the compound.The wait and the walk was very long. Sulochana was exhausted. Rao kept close watch of her. The actual shrine was very small and the darsan was quick. The end of the darsan line was much closer to the entrance/exit area. So, we did not have to walk the great distance to the exit gate. I would go here again, not for the spiritual reason, but to see it as an exhibit of beauty and uniqueness.
From here, Rao and I made our trip to see our beloved Lord of Puttaparthi, Sri Sathya Sai Baba. It was an overnight journey, we had beautiful darsans during the day and we made it a one day stay there. After we returned to Tirupathi, we went to Tirumalai to see the Lord Venkateswara and that culminated our yatra-2.
The rest of it was one day trip to Hyderabad to see my family. By then, I was exhausted with these back to back one day trips. I returned to the USA on Dec 19th, spoke with my first grand daughter Geethanjali whom I missed a lot and on Jan 9th, Sharanya, my second grand daughter was born. Rao enjoyed his extended stay in India till Feb 27th.
Here is Geethanjali:
Here is Sharanya
See you all soon during my yatra 3.
Four temples: The following are famous and there are many other sacred places to visit here.
The first time I visited Kanchi was in 1962. My friend Ramamani wanted to buy her wedding sarees there. We took a bus from Tirupathi and there were three of us and we enjoyed the adventure trip. A local guide took us to the four Temples and the saree shops. We found out that all the best selection was sent to the big stores in Chennai. The next trip was with the children and Sulochana and her husband Krishna Pillai in 1993. We still have fond memories of that trip. We never tried saree shopping again.
Ekambreswara (Shiva), Kamakshi (Parvathi), Varadarajaswami (Vishnu) and Kanchi peetham. The two Peethadhipathi swamis were just finishing their discourses in two different rooms when we arrived. We just could enter one room. Rao talked to the older one for a few minutes. We came out and I sat in front of the huge statue of the previous(periavar)swami and the place was charged with His energy. I was blessed with His darsan in 1993 before He went into samadhi.
We also visited a Temple of Rajarajeswari in Nemali near Kanchi.
Rao first heard about this location from someone in the Rajarajeswari Peetham in Rush, NY and after a lot of inquiries found the exact location. Also, this time Nirmala made sure we got a driver that was a good driver, polite and knew where he was going. Rao was thrilled. He offered the huge package of Hershey's miniatures that he was holding on tight to the priest. We sat on the floor for the pooja. There were a few other devotees in the room. The priest did not offer our candy to the Goddess Bala. He saved it for a time in the future? It was like a shrine in a home. We, the three women did not feel any Temple vibrations at all!! They tried to sell their brochures etc. after the darsan.
Tiruttani:
For Nirmala, Rao and myself this concludes our visit of the six Murugan (Subrahmanya) temples.
In our student days and later on while I was on the teaching staff of SV university, we made several visits to this Subrahmanya Temple. It hasn't changed much.
This was one day trip. The next day trip the four of us made is the following.
The next list:
Kaanipakam: This place isvery near Chittoor. Sulochana was excited because she grew up in Chittoor. here, the temple is of Vinayaka.
Kanipakam is a small village on the bank of Bahuda River.
"Kani" means wetland and "Pakam" means flow of water into wetland. The idol here is 'swayambhu' meaning self manifested in the local Bahuda river(baahu means arm, there is a long sthala purana that goes with this name). The water is supposed to be as sacred as the holy waters of Ganga (Ganges).
They say that the idol is still growing in size. At present, we can see the knees and the abdomen of the idol. Sri Varasiddhi Vinayaka as up-holder of truth.
If there is a dispute, people in the dispute take a holy dip in the temple tank and swear before the Lord. It is taken as gospel truth (and then what happens?). I think the holy water is like a truth serum and the people involved tell 'the whole truth, nothing but the truth'.
I just want to mention again the other places we visited. No details remembered.
Arthagiri, Ponnai (Navagraha), Vepanjeri (Temples for planets, Dasa avataaras, Lakshminarayana, Ashta Lakshmi).
Tengaal (brass Venkateswara) , Samadhi of a Yogi (a mouna swami)
Tiruvannamalai: (Ramana maharshi aashram), Arunachalam
The first time I visited this place was in 1961 when I organised a trip as a student. Ramamani was already a lecturer in the Women's college and she was our staff member in charge. That is when I met her and we became very good friends.
This time, we saw everything leisurely. The place has grown a lot and just beautiful and as peaceful as it was in the sixties. We did the parikrama (by car ofcourse) around the hill. It was the month of Karthikam and the famous karthika deepam(light) was seen everywhere from Tirupathi onwards.
Arunachalam and Sri Ramana Maharshi ashram
One must make this trip in their life time. The ashram is so peaceful inside as well as outside. Absolutely no disturbance of any kind. Please click on the names to see more details
Golden Temple of Lakshmi Narayani:
This is a more recent addition to the area. Very modern, situated in a park like setting. Ample parking for cars and buses outside the compound.The wait and the walk was very long. Sulochana was exhausted. Rao kept close watch of her. The actual shrine was very small and the darsan was quick. The end of the darsan line was much closer to the entrance/exit area. So, we did not have to walk the great distance to the exit gate. I would go here again, not for the spiritual reason, but to see it as an exhibit of beauty and uniqueness.
From here, Rao and I made our trip to see our beloved Lord of Puttaparthi, Sri Sathya Sai Baba. It was an overnight journey, we had beautiful darsans during the day and we made it a one day stay there. After we returned to Tirupathi, we went to Tirumalai to see the Lord Venkateswara and that culminated our yatra-2.
The rest of it was one day trip to Hyderabad to see my family. By then, I was exhausted with these back to back one day trips. I returned to the USA on Dec 19th, spoke with my first grand daughter Geethanjali whom I missed a lot and on Jan 9th, Sharanya, my second grand daughter was born. Rao enjoyed his extended stay in India till Feb 27th.
Here is Geethanjali:
Here is Sharanya
See you all soon during my yatra 3.
Return to Tirupathi and more
We had a very comfortable train journey. Sireesha, in spite of all her busy schedule, gave us package food and we enjoyed that. Nirmala called the cook and the maid and announced our arrival. So, our next meal was ready in Tirupathi. Since sireesha had a washing machine in her house, we did not bring much dirty laundry home this time.
I still had a few days left to return to the USA. Sulochana was just waiting to go with us somewhere. Since her preference was to travel only by car, she could not join us on those other strenous journies. If it were a day trip, and in a car, she said she would join us. We decided on going to Kanchi (Kancheevaram), Nemali, Tiruttani, Tiruvannamalai (Arunachalam). For a little while, Nirmala teased her by saying that we cannot afford a Taxi and that we are going by bus. Sulochana tried to convince Nirmala that she herself would bear the total expense. Finally, we told her that she was included and the cost would be divided and she was happy. I was so happy that I could spend time with her also. We three have been friends since our teens and every one of my visits to India, I spent time with them.
Before Sulochana joined us, we made a day trip of the following. I never knew about this before, unless it was something new. Anyway, I would highly recommend this one.
We were ready early and were in the TTD bus stand by 8 a.m. We paid 89 rupees, I think, per person. Each of these Temples gave a different rice item as prasadam and so, we did not have to go anywhere to have lunch.
Here is the list of Temples: (These are around Tirupathi).
Venugopalaswami in Karveti nagaram
Kalyana Venkateswara in Narayanavanam
Vedanarayana in Nagalapuram
Annapoorna sametha Kasiviswanatha at Bugga
Srivalli Kondeswara swami at Surutipalle
Prasanna Venkateswara in Appalaayagunta
I still had a few days left to return to the USA. Sulochana was just waiting to go with us somewhere. Since her preference was to travel only by car, she could not join us on those other strenous journies. If it were a day trip, and in a car, she said she would join us. We decided on going to Kanchi (Kancheevaram), Nemali, Tiruttani, Tiruvannamalai (Arunachalam). For a little while, Nirmala teased her by saying that we cannot afford a Taxi and that we are going by bus. Sulochana tried to convince Nirmala that she herself would bear the total expense. Finally, we told her that she was included and the cost would be divided and she was happy. I was so happy that I could spend time with her also. We three have been friends since our teens and every one of my visits to India, I spent time with them.
Before Sulochana joined us, we made a day trip of the following. I never knew about this before, unless it was something new. Anyway, I would highly recommend this one.
We were ready early and were in the TTD bus stand by 8 a.m. We paid 89 rupees, I think, per person. Each of these Temples gave a different rice item as prasadam and so, we did not have to go anywhere to have lunch.
Here is the list of Temples: (These are around Tirupathi).
Venugopalaswami in Karveti nagaram
Kalyana Venkateswara in Narayanavanam
Vedanarayana in Nagalapuram
Annapoorna sametha Kasiviswanatha at Bugga
Srivalli Kondeswara swami at Surutipalle
Prasanna Venkateswara in Appalaayagunta
Nagercoil and then back to Ernakulam
Nagercoil:
Here was the famous Temple for the snake God, Nagaraja. As we entered, on our right hand side, there was a separate worship place for the snakes and there was a snake pit. I have visited so many such places in India from childhood. But I never saw a real snake anywhere. Nirmala and I went around (did the pradakshinam to the Naga prathishta) three times inspite of the horrible smell of eggs and broken shells all over. The entrance to the main Temple of Nagaraja was from the side, accross from that snake pit area. Some how, Rao was already inside the Temple. There, we had darsan of Nagaraja, Shiva, Keshava Krishna, Parvathi etc.
We decided to stay in Nagercoil again on the 7th. But somehow, this time, accommodation was a problem. No vacancy in many places. Finally got a (so so) room in the same Chitra Hotels. We checked in around 8 p.m. and left for Ernakulam on the 8th around 8:30 a.m. Rested for two days - but went saree shopping, visited a beauty salon(got hair dyed with natural herbs (only Sireesha and I went there)), visited more local Temples and it was time to return to Tirupathi. We could not believe that the trip was over. This was the most comfortable trip we had!!!
Two more posts coming before I conclude Yatra-2.
Here was the famous Temple for the snake God, Nagaraja. As we entered, on our right hand side, there was a separate worship place for the snakes and there was a snake pit. I have visited so many such places in India from childhood. But I never saw a real snake anywhere. Nirmala and I went around (did the pradakshinam to the Naga prathishta) three times inspite of the horrible smell of eggs and broken shells all over. The entrance to the main Temple of Nagaraja was from the side, accross from that snake pit area. Some how, Rao was already inside the Temple. There, we had darsan of Nagaraja, Shiva, Keshava Krishna, Parvathi etc.
We decided to stay in Nagercoil again on the 7th. But somehow, this time, accommodation was a problem. No vacancy in many places. Finally got a (so so) room in the same Chitra Hotels. We checked in around 8 p.m. and left for Ernakulam on the 8th around 8:30 a.m. Rested for two days - but went saree shopping, visited a beauty salon(got hair dyed with natural herbs (only Sireesha and I went there)), visited more local Temples and it was time to return to Tirupathi. We could not believe that the trip was over. This was the most comfortable trip we had!!!
Two more posts coming before I conclude Yatra-2.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Tirunelveli to Kanyakumari to Suchindram
This was a beautiful drive. In addition to being a scenic drive along the waters we saw plenty of wind power sites. The project site is approximately 12 kilometers northeast of Kanyakumari. With more than 1,000 mega watts of wind turbines already installed in the region.
I was in Kanyakumari in 1987 with my children and my friend Sulochana. Since it was a bus trip then, we must have travelled in the night time and hence i could not recall seeing these. This is located in the Tirunelveli district of Tamilnadu. On the south is the Indian Ocean, Southwest is Arabian sea and also borders Kerala on the North and Northwest.
We arrived too early and the Temple was not open yet. Even the little shops were not ready for business.
The main attractions here are the Kanyakumari (the youthful form of Mother Goddess) Temple, Vivekananda memorial which can be accessed by a ferry and the rock where he meditated, some exhibits, also a recent addition, a memorial to Tiruvalluvar, the author of the philosophical work Tirukkural. I saw a church at a distance - a beautiful view.
We had darsan at the temple around 4 p.m. We decided not to stay overnight at this location. But we were getting hungry. The driver said that the food would be awful here. Then we saw a sign Hotel Tamil Nadu. We drove to that place and since they served vegetarian food in that hotel, we had meals and buttermilk. The total cost was only 166 rupees.
SUCHINDRAM:
Again, this was my second visit to this place and I was looking forward to the pooja for my favorite Hanuman.
"Suchi" means purifying and the place where Indra was purified (of what that I don't know) got the name of Suchindram. The Temple has many musical pillars which have been carved out of single granite blocks 18 feet high.
The Nandi image in the temple, which is 13 feet high, 21 feet long and 10 feet wide, is one of the biggest of its kind in the country. The Temple Prakaram reminds one of those at Madurai and Rameswaram.
The Hanuman statue in the Suchindram temple is 22 feet tall and has been made out of a single granite block. I had special pooja sponsored for a young man suffering from cancer. I sobbed, prayed and begged Hanuman to cure him and give him long and healthy life. The priest adorned (on our behalf) the idol with a huge garland made of betel leaves.
On our way back, during conversation, Nirmala found out that our driver was soon to be married to a Hindu girl. So, Nirmala took it upon herself to lecture him about two things. One, that he is only 23 and too young to get married and second, to make sure that he converts to Hinduism and not to convert the girl into Christianity.
He gave a beautiful smile and went on with his life!!!www.googlemaps.com
I was in Kanyakumari in 1987 with my children and my friend Sulochana. Since it was a bus trip then, we must have travelled in the night time and hence i could not recall seeing these. This is located in the Tirunelveli district of Tamilnadu. On the south is the Indian Ocean, Southwest is Arabian sea and also borders Kerala on the North and Northwest.
We arrived too early and the Temple was not open yet. Even the little shops were not ready for business.
The main attractions here are the Kanyakumari (the youthful form of Mother Goddess) Temple, Vivekananda memorial which can be accessed by a ferry and the rock where he meditated, some exhibits, also a recent addition, a memorial to Tiruvalluvar, the author of the philosophical work Tirukkural. I saw a church at a distance - a beautiful view.
We had darsan at the temple around 4 p.m. We decided not to stay overnight at this location. But we were getting hungry. The driver said that the food would be awful here. Then we saw a sign Hotel Tamil Nadu. We drove to that place and since they served vegetarian food in that hotel, we had meals and buttermilk. The total cost was only 166 rupees.
SUCHINDRAM:
Again, this was my second visit to this place and I was looking forward to the pooja for my favorite Hanuman.
"Suchi" means purifying and the place where Indra was purified (of what that I don't know) got the name of Suchindram. The Temple has many musical pillars which have been carved out of single granite blocks 18 feet high.
The Nandi image in the temple, which is 13 feet high, 21 feet long and 10 feet wide, is one of the biggest of its kind in the country. The Temple Prakaram reminds one of those at Madurai and Rameswaram.
The Hanuman statue in the Suchindram temple is 22 feet tall and has been made out of a single granite block. I had special pooja sponsored for a young man suffering from cancer. I sobbed, prayed and begged Hanuman to cure him and give him long and healthy life. The priest adorned (on our behalf) the idol with a huge garland made of betel leaves.
On our way back, during conversation, Nirmala found out that our driver was soon to be married to a Hindu girl. So, Nirmala took it upon herself to lecture him about two things. One, that he is only 23 and too young to get married and second, to make sure that he converts to Hinduism and not to convert the girl into Christianity.
He gave a beautiful smile and went on with his life!!!www.googlemaps.com
Saturday, August 30, 2008
The last leg of Kerala trip
Since we were travelling in both Tamil Nadu and Kerala, I would like to list all the famous Temples that we covered. Also, I want to mention the names of the hotels that we stayed in. In Tirunelveli, Sri Janakiram Hotels on Madurai road. We stayed there on Dec 6th, 2007. Very comfortable. In Nagercoil, we stayed at Hotel Chitra, we reached here on 7th night around 8 p.m. This one was ok.
Let me begin with Dec 6th. This time, we got a Christian driver, 23 year old, quite a pleasant personality. We were ready for our trip by 5:30 a.m. But the driver did not show up until 7 a.m. There were four Temples on our list to visit first. This is where Rao worked with the maps and impressed the driver a lot. Anyway, the following Temples were visited.
Parthasarathy
Mahadevan and Parvati
Subrahmanyam
Vishnu
The next main attraction was the Kutralam (Kurtalam or Courtallam) water falls in Kollam district.
Courtallam is a well-known bathing place and bathing in these waterfalls is considered good for both mind and body as these waters are said to possess medicinal properties. The water passes through many herbal plants of the forest before hitting the ground. Rao and Nirmala bathed in the falls. I waited at a distance holding their bags of dry clothes. Men and women had separate but adjacent locations of the falls. Normally, people get oil massages and then go under the falls. Small shops attracted my attention. I purchased some mineral oils, spices, herbs etc. I noticed a small Temple and wanted to go inside once my two companions were ready. But when they got into dry clothes, they wanted to have a cup of coffee. The driver was not interested in entering the temples anyway. I did not want to drink coffee. So, I said that I would wait for them near the same shop. It took them longer than I thought and they said since it was getting late, that we should make a move. After driving a bit, I mentioned the Temple and they both said that they already finshed visiting that Temple on the way from the coffee shop. My ego was hurt again!! I never wanted to travel with these two again!!! (That is how I feel when I am angry. Without them, there is no yatra. We are otherwise, such great company)
The scenic drive was beyond words in that area. I did not see any wild animals or Elephants. Just saw the signs.
We bought a lot of Halwa in the Janakiram Hotels. The hotel manager got it neatly packed for us in 1/2 kg and 1 kg pkgs. We were told that it was very famous. Later on, we distributed it to all our relatives and friends generously. With lot of ghee and sugar, it was quite heavy (both calorie and weight wise).
From here, we headed towards Kanyakumari. I will cover it my next post.
Let me begin with Dec 6th. This time, we got a Christian driver, 23 year old, quite a pleasant personality. We were ready for our trip by 5:30 a.m. But the driver did not show up until 7 a.m. There were four Temples on our list to visit first. This is where Rao worked with the maps and impressed the driver a lot. Anyway, the following Temples were visited.
Parthasarathy
Mahadevan and Parvati
Subrahmanyam
Vishnu
The next main attraction was the Kutralam (Kurtalam or Courtallam) water falls in Kollam district.
Courtallam is a well-known bathing place and bathing in these waterfalls is considered good for both mind and body as these waters are said to possess medicinal properties. The water passes through many herbal plants of the forest before hitting the ground. Rao and Nirmala bathed in the falls. I waited at a distance holding their bags of dry clothes. Men and women had separate but adjacent locations of the falls. Normally, people get oil massages and then go under the falls. Small shops attracted my attention. I purchased some mineral oils, spices, herbs etc. I noticed a small Temple and wanted to go inside once my two companions were ready. But when they got into dry clothes, they wanted to have a cup of coffee. The driver was not interested in entering the temples anyway. I did not want to drink coffee. So, I said that I would wait for them near the same shop. It took them longer than I thought and they said since it was getting late, that we should make a move. After driving a bit, I mentioned the Temple and they both said that they already finshed visiting that Temple on the way from the coffee shop. My ego was hurt again!! I never wanted to travel with these two again!!! (That is how I feel when I am angry. Without them, there is no yatra. We are otherwise, such great company)
The scenic drive was beyond words in that area. I did not see any wild animals or Elephants. Just saw the signs.
We bought a lot of Halwa in the Janakiram Hotels. The hotel manager got it neatly packed for us in 1/2 kg and 1 kg pkgs. We were told that it was very famous. Later on, we distributed it to all our relatives and friends generously. With lot of ghee and sugar, it was quite heavy (both calorie and weight wise).
From here, we headed towards Kanyakumari. I will cover it my next post.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Adi Shankara Mandapam and Kaladi
This Mandapamis at Kaladi, the birth place of Sri Adi Shankara. It is eight storeyed and is about 45 meters in height. The shape is octagonal. As you climb the steps, you see the life story of Adi Shankara on paintings. There are two elephant statues at the entrance.
My memory says that this kirti mandapam was pink colored. We really enjoyed visiting this structure.
In the Paduka Mandapam, there were big statues of Sri Adi Shankara and Lord Ganesha.
Kaladi: This is a small town situated on the banks of river Periyar also known as Poorna river. Most important is the fact that it is the birth place of the great saint and philosopher Adi Shankara. The two shrines here, one of Shankaracharya and Dakshinamoorthy and the other is of Sharada Devi, maintained by the Sringeri Math.
We were told that a Srichakram was installed underground in that temple.
We went inside the Shrine and did pradakshinams. Besides us, there was another elderly man. He started the conversation with us beginning with his life story. He was born in 1923 and visited that place first time in 1931. Now he lives around that area. The next thing we knew, he was suggesting that we donate generously. We sponsored poojas for Rs. 2001 and Nirmala sponsored one for Rs.500. We were asked to give the addresses and they said that they would mail the prasadam. This was in Dec 2007 and as of today, neither Nirmala nor our family in Hyderabad received any prasadam. It is really not important. But I just had to mention it.
We then went close to the river, sprinkled the holy water on our heads. The other temple was closed at that time. We just had a peek of the idol inside.
We lingered for an extra half hour walking around, because it was very peaceful there. By the way, visitors are allowed in this temple irrespective of color, creed, religion and nationality.
My memory says that this kirti mandapam was pink colored. We really enjoyed visiting this structure.
In the Paduka Mandapam, there were big statues of Sri Adi Shankara and Lord Ganesha.
Kaladi: This is a small town situated on the banks of river Periyar also known as Poorna river. Most important is the fact that it is the birth place of the great saint and philosopher Adi Shankara. The two shrines here, one of Shankaracharya and Dakshinamoorthy and the other is of Sharada Devi, maintained by the Sringeri Math.
We were told that a Srichakram was installed underground in that temple.
We went inside the Shrine and did pradakshinams. Besides us, there was another elderly man. He started the conversation with us beginning with his life story. He was born in 1923 and visited that place first time in 1931. Now he lives around that area. The next thing we knew, he was suggesting that we donate generously. We sponsored poojas for Rs. 2001 and Nirmala sponsored one for Rs.500. We were asked to give the addresses and they said that they would mail the prasadam. This was in Dec 2007 and as of today, neither Nirmala nor our family in Hyderabad received any prasadam. It is really not important. But I just had to mention it.
We then went close to the river, sprinkled the holy water on our heads. The other temple was closed at that time. We just had a peek of the idol inside.
We lingered for an extra half hour walking around, because it was very peaceful there. By the way, visitors are allowed in this temple irrespective of color, creed, religion and nationality.
Other Temples that we visited and worth mentioning
ST. FRANCIS CHURCH - This is India's oldest European church. I somehow mistook it for St. Thomas' Church. I took some photos to bring it back to my friend Mary in Cleveland. This Church is located in Fort Cochin and was built in 1503 by Portuguese Franciscan Friars. Rao and I sat inside this Church for a few minutes and enjoyed the peace!! There were several others sitting and praying.
Sri Chottanikkara temple - Bhagavathi is the main deity here. This one is located near Ernakulam and is a popular deity in Kerala.
In Tripunittura the goddess is worshipped along with Lord Vishnu. Goddess Rajarajeswari is the presiding deity here. This to us is of special interest.The interesting thing here is that this deity is worshipped as Saraswati in the morning draped in white, as Bhadrakali at noon draped in crimson, and as Durga in the evening in blue. The image in the shrine is not fixed to the ground but is sitting on loose sand.
Sri Padmanabha Swamy Temple - Located in Thiruvananthapuram (Travancore) and was built in the 1700s. It has a seven-storeyed carved gopuram. There are many pillars, carvings and paintings of natural pigments. The temple is dedicated to Vishnu who reclines on the sacred serpent Ananda. The image of Vishnu is about 18 feet long and the image of Brahma is seen in the lotus that grows from Brahma's navel. Now I know how the name Ananthapadmanabha came about!!
Many of us have heard of Kathakali, the famous dance of Kerala which I love!!. But Krishnanattam, Koodiyattom, Pavakkoothu, Nokkuvidya, Velakali and others have thrived under the patronage of Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple.
Vadukkumnathan Temple - This is dedicated to Lord Shiva. It is one of the largest temples in Kerala and Adi Sankaracharya is supposed to have spent his last days in this temple.
Thrichur (Thrissur):
The Kerala Sahitya Academy and Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy are located in Trichur.
Others
MATTANCHERRY PALACE - The palace was originally built by the Portuguese in the 1500s and the Dutch renovated it after 1660 and preseted it to Veera Kerala Varma, the then raja of Kochin. The palace is also known as Dutch Palace.
PARISHATH THAMPURAN MUSEUM - It was originally a Durbar hall. This museum contains collections of 19th century oil paintings, old coins, sculptures and Mughal paintings and other exhibits from the Royal family.
We did spend quite sometime walking around inside these two buildings. You could pay a fee and take photos inside. But, the irony of fate - Nirmala happily paid the fee and then informed me about it and I, since no photographing was allowed in other temples, left the camera with our driver in the car.
I just wanted to finish this post. hence not much personal details are given.
.www.googlemaps.com
Dec 5th, a day trip to Guruvayur etc.
Our Taxi driver Asif was very prompt. He was very polite.For a Muslim, he knew a lot about the Hindu Temples and traditions.
We left home around 6 a.m. The first stop was at the Guruvayoor Krishna Temple. It was a huge compound, but was packed with devotees who arrived much earlier than us. Every Temple we visited in Tamil Nadu also, there were Sabari Malai devotees ahead of us. It was no different here. We were standing in line for more than 2 hours before we entered the Temple. Nirmala could not stand any longer. She went into the Administration office, showed her TTD badge and they let us by pass the rest of the crowd and were able to go inside closer to the sanctum. It was very much against my wishes, still I had to follow the other two. After all this trouble, we just had a glimpse of the Idol for a split second (perhaps, a split minute????). No prasadam was served here. For those of you interested in the history and how the Temple survived many blows in the past, please click here.
The legend goes that the installation of Guruvayurappan was done by Guru(Brihaspathi (Jupiter) and Vayu(the wind God)). The pooja procedures were laid down by Sri Adishankara and even today, the Namboodris (Namboothris) are the ones that perform the poojas.
The famous Narayaneeyam was composed by Narayan Bhattadri (Bhattathri) here.
Non-Hindus are not allowed inside this Temple and the dress code is only Saree for woman and no shirt can be worn by men. No cameras, no Cell phones and so on.
Like many other South Indian Temples, there are many paintings (and here from 17th century depicting the life of Krishna) adorning the walls. The vishnu idol is made of Patala anjanam, we were told. I don't know what it is. I loved the Tulasi plants in the Temple.
The other shrines here are for Durga, Ganapathi and Ayyappan.
What we missed was the 51 elephant parade. We were not in the right season. It must have been very majestic and pompous. I just love those elephants in all these temples.
By the way, Guruvayur is located 29 km. Northwest of Trissur(Trichur) district.
From here, we went to see the Adishankara Tower.www.googlemaps.com
We left home around 6 a.m. The first stop was at the Guruvayoor Krishna Temple. It was a huge compound, but was packed with devotees who arrived much earlier than us. Every Temple we visited in Tamil Nadu also, there were Sabari Malai devotees ahead of us. It was no different here. We were standing in line for more than 2 hours before we entered the Temple. Nirmala could not stand any longer. She went into the Administration office, showed her TTD badge and they let us by pass the rest of the crowd and were able to go inside closer to the sanctum. It was very much against my wishes, still I had to follow the other two. After all this trouble, we just had a glimpse of the Idol for a split second (perhaps, a split minute????). No prasadam was served here. For those of you interested in the history and how the Temple survived many blows in the past, please click here.
The legend goes that the installation of Guruvayurappan was done by Guru(Brihaspathi (Jupiter) and Vayu(the wind God)). The pooja procedures were laid down by Sri Adishankara and even today, the Namboodris (Namboothris) are the ones that perform the poojas.
The famous Narayaneeyam was composed by Narayan Bhattadri (Bhattathri) here.
Non-Hindus are not allowed inside this Temple and the dress code is only Saree for woman and no shirt can be worn by men. No cameras, no Cell phones and so on.
Like many other South Indian Temples, there are many paintings (and here from 17th century depicting the life of Krishna) adorning the walls. The vishnu idol is made of Patala anjanam, we were told. I don't know what it is. I loved the Tulasi plants in the Temple.
The other shrines here are for Durga, Ganapathi and Ayyappan.
What we missed was the 51 elephant parade. We were not in the right season. It must have been very majestic and pompous. I just love those elephants in all these temples.
By the way, Guruvayur is located 29 km. Northwest of Trissur(Trichur) district.
From here, we went to see the Adishankara Tower.www.googlemaps.com
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
To Ernakulam from Mangalore
From Mangalore, we took the train Parasuram express. Nirmala's niece Sireesha was at the train station waiting for us with her van. The train journey was very comfortable. I was getting back to my normal health slowly. Sireesha moved back to Ernakulam from a short stay in Chennai, just in time for our trip. We were happy to see each other after a long time. Now she has a wonderful husband and two kids . We enjoyed their hospitality for about a week. They helped us in making local taxi arrangements etc. We made two separate trips from their location. We covered part of Tamil nadu also in one of the taxi trips. More on those temples in my next posts.
We were able to rest here for two reasons. One - we really needed it. Two - Rao got hold of local maps and planned in such an efficient way that we were left with two extra days before our return to Tirupathi on Dec 12th (the train reservations were made long time ago).
We were able to rest here for two reasons. One - we really needed it. Two - Rao got hold of local maps and planned in such an efficient way that we were left with two extra days before our return to Tirupathi on Dec 12th (the train reservations were made long time ago).
Tala Kaveri - the river begins here?
Madikeri was where we wanted to spend the nighton the 30th. Instead, stayed at Kukke. I forgot why!! This small beautiful Coorg town lies in the Western Ghats and is a popular hill station. It lies at an altitude of 1,170 meters. The nearest cities are Mangalore to the west, and Mysore to the east. The river here is called Hemavathi. Our driver coaxed us to go toMysore from there. But when we calculated the time left for us and the enrgy level was getting low, we decided to skip that long drive.
Tala Kaveri(Cauvery):
Is 7 km from Bhagamandala and about 40km from Madikeri. The drive was picturesque. We stopped once and took some photos. It is situated on the slopes of the Brahmagiri hills.
This is the origin of river Kaveri on the eastern slopes of Brahmagiri peak at an altitude of 1350meters . An enclosure around the spring called Gundige is connected to a small pond. The water from the pond goes underground and comes out after about one kilometer down the hill. There are three shrines above the spring and birds eye view of west-coast from the hill range. You have to climb quite a few steps to reach the top and have the bird's eye view. Only Rao took that adventure trip. Nirmala and I stayed near the pond and chatted with an elderly man about his childhood etc.
It was extremely beautiful here also. But we were getting hungry. So, we started our return journey to Mangalore. We found only one place to eat. I ordered yogurt rice. The driver had a luxury meal. My meal was from the refrigerator. It was ice cold.
It was already Dec 1st, Saturday. We were scheduled to take a train to Ernakulam, Kerala on Monday, Dec 3rd at 4 a.m.
I woke up in the middle of the night. My stomach felt funny. My mouth tasted ugly. I started throwing up several times. Did not want to disturb my companions who were tired and fast asleep. Nirmala was very much concerned in the morning. We waited till the drug store accross from the hotel was open. She accompanied me to the medical shop. The owner of the store was very helpful. Gave me two types of medicines. One to stop the vomitting and the other to cure the symptoms. I felt very weak, but much better. Emotionally, very down, angry and so on - due to the medicines! Moral of the story - don't eat yogurt rice of that type while travelling in India.
By the way, in my haste to finish the post about Karnataka, I missed mentioning a few other temples that we visited. Jain Temple, which was closed by the time we reached, Thrilokeswara, Gorakshanatha and Ayyappa temples. Sorry that I have no recollection of the details.
The driver picked up his fee and tip and was gone. We hired different transportation to go to the train station in the morning.
I want to mention that each and everyone that we came across in Mangalore was nice and very polite.
This ends our Karnataka trip.
Tala Kaveri(Cauvery):
Is 7 km from Bhagamandala and about 40km from Madikeri. The drive was picturesque. We stopped once and took some photos. It is situated on the slopes of the Brahmagiri hills.
This is the origin of river Kaveri on the eastern slopes of Brahmagiri peak at an altitude of 1350meters . An enclosure around the spring called Gundige is connected to a small pond. The water from the pond goes underground and comes out after about one kilometer down the hill. There are three shrines above the spring and birds eye view of west-coast from the hill range. You have to climb quite a few steps to reach the top and have the bird's eye view. Only Rao took that adventure trip. Nirmala and I stayed near the pond and chatted with an elderly man about his childhood etc.
It was extremely beautiful here also. But we were getting hungry. So, we started our return journey to Mangalore. We found only one place to eat. I ordered yogurt rice. The driver had a luxury meal. My meal was from the refrigerator. It was ice cold.
It was already Dec 1st, Saturday. We were scheduled to take a train to Ernakulam, Kerala on Monday, Dec 3rd at 4 a.m.
I woke up in the middle of the night. My stomach felt funny. My mouth tasted ugly. I started throwing up several times. Did not want to disturb my companions who were tired and fast asleep. Nirmala was very much concerned in the morning. We waited till the drug store accross from the hotel was open. She accompanied me to the medical shop. The owner of the store was very helpful. Gave me two types of medicines. One to stop the vomitting and the other to cure the symptoms. I felt very weak, but much better. Emotionally, very down, angry and so on - due to the medicines! Moral of the story - don't eat yogurt rice of that type while travelling in India.
By the way, in my haste to finish the post about Karnataka, I missed mentioning a few other temples that we visited. Jain Temple, which was closed by the time we reached, Thrilokeswara, Gorakshanatha and Ayyappa temples. Sorry that I have no recollection of the details.
The driver picked up his fee and tip and was gone. We hired different transportation to go to the train station in the morning.
I want to mention that each and everyone that we came across in Mangalore was nice and very polite.
This ends our Karnataka trip.
Kukke Subrahmanyam
Nirmala mentioned this name so many times, that I wondered how magnificient it was going to be. We went to Dharmasthala onthe way and then stayed on Nov 30th Friday overnight at Seshanaag Aashraya lodge for night halt. We had lunch in Kukke with the advice from the driver Ramachandra. The food was excellent. The driver was visiting some friends or relatives and so we spent extra time locating each other.
Now about the Temple:
Kukke Subrahmanya located in the small, rural village of Subramanya in the Western Ghats of Karnataka, India, about 105 km from Mangalore. Here the God Subrahmanya is worshipped for his divine power as a snake.
To go the to the Temple we have to cross the Kumaradhara River, devotees take a holy bath in it before they go on to the temple to have darshan. We did not take a bath but sprinkled water from the river on our heads and washed our feet before entering the temple. The devotees enter the courtyard from behind and walk around to go in front of the idol. There was a Garuda pillar between the sanctuary and the portico entrance. It is believed that the pillar was charmed and planted there to shield the devotees from the poison flames streaming from the breath of Vasuki who resides inside. Many Hindus know that Garuda (the eagle) and Vasuki (the snake) are enemies. Devotees do pradakshinam 9circle around the pillar. Beyond the pillar is the outer hall and then the inner hall and after that the sanctuary of Sri Subrahmanya. On a stand was the idol of Subrahmanya and then that of Vasuki and then the idol of Shesha. Poojas to these take place daily. Some how I was not too impressed here. Perhaps, the Annapoorna temple was still fresh on my mind.
We were exhausted due to the bad roads. I don't think the construction will be over in one year.
Sringeri Sarada Peetham and Annapoorneswari Temple
Sarada Peetham
This Peetham is the first and foremost of the four Peethams established by Sri Adi Shankara. The Goddess Sharada is the presiding deity enshrined on the Sreechakra Peetham, holding a japamala in her hand and a parrot perched on her head. (We used to visit the one in the Poconos in Pennsylvania, in USA often). The driveis very scenic. Oddly,but for a few monkeys and crows, I did not see any animals or birds in that forest like setting!! This Peetham also was one of the places one must visit in their life time. Very clean, methodical, strict in their procedures and policies and in the implementing of them. There were not many visitors the day we visited.
A number of Vedic schools and temples are maintained by the Peetham. Besides this, a hospital and a few colleges are run too. There is a library with rare Sanskrit volumes. We enjoyed the Pooja performed by young men in their orange clothing. The nature's beauty is such that you don't want to move away from this area. Perfect place to sit and meditate.
At the top of another small hill, there was a Temple of Shakti Ganapathi. We drove to that location which you can see from the Sarada temple location and a very young (teenager?) man performed the pooja archana for us. They must all be students of the Vedic school. Here, a few women were chanting slokas. The third temple is of Bhuvaneswari. Yet another one was of Vidyashankara temple where the 12 Zodiac pillars are arranged in such a way that Sun's rays fall onthe pillar corresponding to the appropriate month. Evidently, I wasn't there long enough to verify this!!!
On this day, Nov 29th, after visiting Udipi and Sringeri, the next one was of Annapoorneswari.
The Annapoorneswari Temple:
This one is about 75 kms from Sringeri. Another long drive, I thought!! I love the name Annapoorna. She is the giver of food for all!! Now, about the temple.
The idol is made of pancha lohas (five metals), 5 feet in height and were told that it weighs around 55o kgs. I wonder what type of technology they had to move such a weight!! She stands on a peetham with Devi Gayathri, Srichakram, Shankha and Chakra in her four hands. It is so enchanting that you cannot take your eyes off her. No one ever mentioned this temple before. We just did not feel like moving away from the inner sanctum. We sponsored food for 50 people and we ourselves were allowed to measure the rice into a container for anna daanam. We had a simple meal at the dining hall after the pooja and came out.
We decided to stay in the choultry there on the spur of the moment. By God's grace, there were rooms available and we were very comfortable. It was nominal fee which included hot water for bathing.
After another morning darsan, we reluctantly left the place. We were on our way now to Kukke Subrahmanya temple
Kadiri (Kadri)Manjunath, Mangala devi Temples
Kadri Manjunath Temple
The Manjunath Temple is situated at the foot of the Kadiri Hill, 3 km north of Mangalore city. The temple is from the 17th century and has some beautiful bronze images of Buddha from the 10th or 11th centuries. The idol of Lord Manjunathaswamy of the temple is believed to be the oldest of the South Indian Temples. On the top of the hill lies a mutt called as 'Jogimutt'. There are some stone caves here which are known as the caves of the Pandavas.I heard about this temple first time in 1995. My younger sister, my son and I were visiting Bangalore and the taxi driver we hired then spoke very highly of this temple. I wonder whether he talked about the one in Dharmasthala!!!.
Mangaladevi Temple
The place Mangalapura (or Mangalore) derives its name from the temple of Mangaladevi situated in Bolar, some 3 kms away from the heart of the city. The temple’s history dates back to ninth century and even today people believe that the worship of Mangaldevi brings them prosperity and happiness. I am sure this is true of every temple we visited. During Navarathri (Dussehra) festival special pujas are performed for nine days and we were told that the place becomes very lively. We were there in Nov/Dec, so not much activity.
The Manjunath Temple is situated at the foot of the Kadiri Hill, 3 km north of Mangalore city. The temple is from the 17th century and has some beautiful bronze images of Buddha from the 10th or 11th centuries. The idol of Lord Manjunathaswamy of the temple is believed to be the oldest of the South Indian Temples. On the top of the hill lies a mutt called as 'Jogimutt'. There are some stone caves here which are known as the caves of the Pandavas.I heard about this temple first time in 1995. My younger sister, my son and I were visiting Bangalore and the taxi driver we hired then spoke very highly of this temple. I wonder whether he talked about the one in Dharmasthala!!!.
Mangaladevi Temple
The place Mangalapura (or Mangalore) derives its name from the temple of Mangaladevi situated in Bolar, some 3 kms away from the heart of the city. The temple’s history dates back to ninth century and even today people believe that the worship of Mangaldevi brings them prosperity and happiness. I am sure this is true of every temple we visited. During Navarathri (Dussehra) festival special pujas are performed for nine days and we were told that the place becomes very lively. We were there in Nov/Dec, so not much activity.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Karnataka continued............Udupi and around
After Gokarna, Muradeswar and Mookambika (Kollur) we were exhausted. Why? Because the roads felt long and strenuous. There was construction and repairs going on and we were lucky to have not experienced a flat tire. The driver Ramachandra loved only long drives.
Anyway, our next list of Temples included Udupi Krishna(Udipi), Sringeri Shankara acharya and Annapoorneswari.
We were ready by 6 a.m. on 29th and the driver was very punctual.
Udupi is a coastal town in the western ghats region of Karnataka state. This is an old temple city famous for its Krishna temple. It is located right on a national highway connecting Mangalore with Mumbai. From Bangalore, you need to come to Mangalore via another national highway. Inspite of the condition of the roads,we enjoyed the scenic beauty around the highways. Our wait in line was so long compared tothe darsan we had for a few seconds. To tell you the truth, the form of the idol did not even make an impression in my mind. I silently sang to myself some of the Purandara dasa songs that I knew.
It is also the birth place of the Dwaita philosopher, Madhwacharya (Pajaka which is about 10 kms. from Udupi). Udipi vegetarian restaurants are famous all over the world for their authentic and tasty food.
The following were some Devi temples around Udupi.
Janardana and Mahakali Temple, Ambalpady
Mahishamardhini Temple, Kadiyali
Panchadurgaparameshwari Temple, Indrali
Jayadurgaparameshwari Temple, Kannarpady
I don't recall any details about these temples.I did not record any in my notes.
We stayed overnight at Shri Ramakrishna hotel on 28th night. Just FYI.
My next post will be about Sringeri.
Monday, July 28, 2008
The first one - Gokarneswara
Ganapathi Temple was the first one we visited. We were ready by 10:30 a.m. and the driver came on time. The following were on our list. Gokarneswara, Kadiri, Mangala Devi and Durga Parameswari in Katil. We visited a Jain Temple also (driver's choice).
Gokarna is a pilgrimage center of Karnataka, Worshipped here is the Aatma Lingam Mahabaleshwar. It is regarded as one of the 7 Mukti Stalas of Karnataka. Gokarna is located at a distance of 170 km from Mangalore. The other six being Kollur, Kodeshwara, Kumbasi, Subramanya, Sankaranarayana and Udipi.
Legend goes that Vinayaka (Ganapathi) tricked the demon Ravana into leaving behind a Shivalingam here, a legend similar to that of Tiruchirappalli. In spite of the strength exerted by Ravana, the Maha Bala, the Shivalingam stayed fixed, hence the name Mahabaleshwar. Because of the pull exerted by Ravana, the Shivalingam resembled the shape of a cow's ear and hence the name Gokarnam. A very similar legend holds at the Vaidyanath - Jyotirlingam temple at Deogarh in Bihar, which we plan to visit in 2008. The female deity Gokarna Nayaki also known as Taamragowri - her shrine is behind the sanctum.
The Temple of Mahabaleshwar faces west in a square Saligrama Peetham. A golden rekha (line) on the peetham, and a small hole in its middle permits devotees to have a glimpse of the top of the Aatma Lingam. Once in 40 years, during the Ashta bandhana Kumbhabhishekam, the six foot tall Shivalingam that is encolsed inside the Peetham is seen. We were there at a different time!!! There are also shrines of Vinayaka, Chandikeswara, Aadi Gokarneswara and Dattatreya.
Gokarna is a pilgrimage center of Karnataka, Worshipped here is the Aatma Lingam Mahabaleshwar. It is regarded as one of the 7 Mukti Stalas of Karnataka. Gokarna is located at a distance of 170 km from Mangalore. The other six being Kollur, Kodeshwara, Kumbasi, Subramanya, Sankaranarayana and Udipi.
Legend goes that Vinayaka (Ganapathi) tricked the demon Ravana into leaving behind a Shivalingam here, a legend similar to that of Tiruchirappalli. In spite of the strength exerted by Ravana, the Maha Bala, the Shivalingam stayed fixed, hence the name Mahabaleshwar. Because of the pull exerted by Ravana, the Shivalingam resembled the shape of a cow's ear and hence the name Gokarnam. A very similar legend holds at the Vaidyanath - Jyotirlingam temple at Deogarh in Bihar, which we plan to visit in 2008. The female deity Gokarna Nayaki also known as Taamragowri - her shrine is behind the sanctum.
The Temple of Mahabaleshwar faces west in a square Saligrama Peetham. A golden rekha (line) on the peetham, and a small hole in its middle permits devotees to have a glimpse of the top of the Aatma Lingam. Once in 40 years, during the Ashta bandhana Kumbhabhishekam, the six foot tall Shivalingam that is encolsed inside the Peetham is seen. We were there at a different time!!! There are also shrines of Vinayaka, Chandikeswara, Aadi Gokarneswara and Dattatreya.
Karnataka, dream come true!!! - chapter 1
The abovephoto was taken near Sringeri. Rao and our driver.
I was in the province of Karnataka many times in my life. I did my 8th grade public exam (in the good old 50s) in Bangalore. We lived there for about 3 years. I love the place. Many sweet memories!! But this yatra, my desire was to see Sringeri Sarada Peetham. The holy place established by Sri Shankara Acharya. We added few more places like mangalore, Dharmasthala, Kukke (Subrahmanyam), Talakaveri, Udipi, Madikare, Annapurneswari etc.
We left Tirupathi on Nov 26th around 10:30 a.m. by Taxi. Reached Katpadi Junction by 12:30. Great driver, scenic drive. On the way I noticed a structure with symbols of the three major religions Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. The driver said it was a school!!! The train at Katpadi was at 1:30 p.m.to reach Mangalore by 5 a.m. We slept well. Nirmala had arranged for a Taxi, driver cum guide to meet us at the train station. This was done through the help of her niece and her husband who live in Ernakulam, Kerala. The driver had a sign and we recognized each other. Nirmala was told that the driver could speak Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Hindi and English. We were thrilled. But, as soon as Rao spoke a few words in Kannada, the driver dropped the other languages (which he knew very little anyway). But he was intelligent and polite, unlike our Tirupathi driver.
It was already 27th. We went to Hotel Manorama, on K.S. Rao Road in Mangalore (excellent) to shower, rest, have breakfast etc. Attached to this hotel was a restaurant.The rates were reasonable, food was healthy and tasty. The official tour began at 10:30 a.m. on Nov 27th visiting the local Temples. The driver knew where he was going and what he was talking about. We will meet in my next post.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Return to Tirupathi - Nov 8, 2007
We had an enjoyable trip overall. But all of us were exhausted. The weather, the food, the hotels were all good. The driver's aptitude did not change. The men in our group pampered him a little bit. He took advantage of that and his attitude had changed. Now it was our return journey to Tirupathi. On the way we were passing by Kanchi. Rao's brother wanted to see that place also. The two of them (he and his wife) even considered getting off and exploring by themselves. Since there was so much to see there, we wanted to make a separate trip. But we weren't sure whether they should take the risk of travelling by themselves. Anyway, as we approached kanchi, Rao's brother had some uneasy feeling healthwise. So, we did not stop and hence returned to Tirupathi.
There was a wedding from my father's side of the family that I wanted to attend in Nellore on the 10th. So, I went to Nellore on the 9th and returned on the 11th. I saw tons of relatives and old friends and aquaintances whom I have not seen in decades, at that wedding. Rao rested at Nirmala's place for 2 days. his brother and sister-in-law returned to Hyderabad with happy memories and some health issues.
Rao and I made a day trip (night journey) to Puttaparthi to see our beloved Sathya Sai Baba. We had great darsan and returned to Tirupathi. The trip was short and sweet. By the time we returned, Nirmala was ready with the plans for the next leg of the yatra.
Thanks to all of you who read my posts so far. Please comment and help me improve my blog. The next chapter would be our trip to Karnataka.
There was a wedding from my father's side of the family that I wanted to attend in Nellore on the 10th. So, I went to Nellore on the 9th and returned on the 11th. I saw tons of relatives and old friends and aquaintances whom I have not seen in decades, at that wedding. Rao rested at Nirmala's place for 2 days. his brother and sister-in-law returned to Hyderabad with happy memories and some health issues.
Rao and I made a day trip (night journey) to Puttaparthi to see our beloved Sathya Sai Baba. We had great darsan and returned to Tirupathi. The trip was short and sweet. By the time we returned, Nirmala was ready with the plans for the next leg of the yatra.
Thanks to all of you who read my posts so far. Please comment and help me improve my blog. The next chapter would be our trip to Karnataka.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Palani , last, but not the least!!!
This will be my last post of our Tamil Nadu tour. Nagalakshmi very much wanted to stay overnight here. But, like I said in one of my previous posts, we were short of time and the night halt at Palani would have added more miles to our travel. By the time we reached Palani, it was late afternoon. After the darsan, we returned towards Madurai.
Palani is situated at about 110 kms from Madurai amd 150 kms from Trichy. The Temple is situated on a hilltop, about 450 feet high. if we took the steps to climb, we may have to climb close to 700 steps. We decided to take the very comfortable Trolly (electric winch?). I remember in 1985 when I visited (along with my children) my sister (akka, who was then working as a principal of a local college in Palani) I was nervous going on that trolly with a steep upward motion. But this time, I wasn't nervous. That train made many trips each day taking devotees up and down.
The deity is Dandayadhapani, another name for Subrahmanya swami (Murugan). This is one of the six Murugan Temples one should visit. We had a wonderful darsan here. As soon as we entered the Temple, we were fortunate to witness the chariot procession sponsored by somebody. We walked around along with that party.
I don't want to go into sthala puranas about this Temple. About sage Agastya, Narada bringing a special mango, the competition between Vinayaka and Subrahmanya and so on. Once you search the internet, you can see all that.
Palani is situated at about 110 kms from Madurai amd 150 kms from Trichy. The Temple is situated on a hilltop, about 450 feet high. if we took the steps to climb, we may have to climb close to 700 steps. We decided to take the very comfortable Trolly (electric winch?). I remember in 1985 when I visited (along with my children) my sister (akka, who was then working as a principal of a local college in Palani) I was nervous going on that trolly with a steep upward motion. But this time, I wasn't nervous. That train made many trips each day taking devotees up and down.
The deity is Dandayadhapani, another name for Subrahmanya swami (Murugan). This is one of the six Murugan Temples one should visit. We had a wonderful darsan here. As soon as we entered the Temple, we were fortunate to witness the chariot procession sponsored by somebody. We walked around along with that party.
I don't want to go into sthala puranas about this Temple. About sage Agastya, Narada bringing a special mango, the competition between Vinayaka and Subrahmanya and so on. Once you search the internet, you can see all that.
Samayapuram, Tiruvanaikkaval Jambukeshwara
I should have mentioned this in the Srirangam-Trichy post. But never too late.
Samayapuram Temple has been dedicated to Mariamman. She is the manifestation of Shakti. People believe that the Goddess Mariamman is capable of curing diseases like Small Pox and Chicken Pox. I felt that this was like the village deity. In my childhood, I have seen such Temples in Nellore also. Especially when I saw goats (tied to the poles) and cocks waiting to be sacrificed, I felt very uncomfortable. This was the typical grama devata (village deity)style. I did not want to go inside the shrine as soon as I realized that such superstitions still existed!! People believe in it and pray for the cure and once cured(or not) they sacrifice these animals. There are other festivals like annual floats etc., but I wasn't interested in knowing any more details. Sorry folks, Not much to elaborate here.
The legend goes that when Lord Shiva swallowed the Kaalakoota poison he created Goddess Kali from that poison and so, henceforth she assumed the name Kali.
The temple at Tiruvanaikaval is a big one covering an area of about 18 acres with high walls and gopurams on all the four sides. The temple has five prakarams. The main shrine(the 5th prakaram) can be reached by entering a series of Gopurams. Situated in the 4th prakaram, Akhilandeswari is the presiding female deity and Jambukeshwara is the male deity. I did not take any photos. But I liked the photos on this site. I mentioned this Temple under the 'Five elements' theme.
According to the legend there was once a forest of Jambu trees at this location. Near by was a tank called Chandratheertha which was filled by water from the river Kaveri. Lord shiva appeared as a Lingam under one of the trees. Hence the name Jambukeshwara (and more on the name, you can search). Due to a curse, two of the shiva ganas Pushpadanta and Malyava, were born in the forest as a white elephant and as a spider. The elephant worshipped the Lingam with flowers and with water brought in its trunk. The spider too worshipped the Lingam, spinning out a web over the Lingam to prevent leaves of the tree from falling on it. The spider's web appeared to be unclean for the elephant and it destroyed the web. This lead to big clash between the two and ultimately resulted in their death. Lord shiva granted salvation to both.
Anyway, we were told that the river Kaveri water can be seen in the slabs under the lingam. I thought it was a spring underneath slab.
The concentric walls make the Jambukeshwara Temple more interesting and exciting. For the Shaivites the Jambukeshwara Temple is an absolute charm. There are also seven Gopurams and they are captivating for both the religiously inclined and the artistically minded.
The non Hindus are not allowed to enter the temple premises.
I was totally confused in some of these Temples. I am writing this in a rush to finish this post. Please feel free to make corrections or additional comments about this temple.www.googlemaps.com
Samayapuram Temple has been dedicated to Mariamman. She is the manifestation of Shakti. People believe that the Goddess Mariamman is capable of curing diseases like Small Pox and Chicken Pox. I felt that this was like the village deity. In my childhood, I have seen such Temples in Nellore also. Especially when I saw goats (tied to the poles) and cocks waiting to be sacrificed, I felt very uncomfortable. This was the typical grama devata (village deity)style. I did not want to go inside the shrine as soon as I realized that such superstitions still existed!! People believe in it and pray for the cure and once cured(or not) they sacrifice these animals. There are other festivals like annual floats etc., but I wasn't interested in knowing any more details. Sorry folks, Not much to elaborate here.
The legend goes that when Lord Shiva swallowed the Kaalakoota poison he created Goddess Kali from that poison and so, henceforth she assumed the name Kali.
The temple at Tiruvanaikaval is a big one covering an area of about 18 acres with high walls and gopurams on all the four sides. The temple has five prakarams. The main shrine(the 5th prakaram) can be reached by entering a series of Gopurams. Situated in the 4th prakaram, Akhilandeswari is the presiding female deity and Jambukeshwara is the male deity. I did not take any photos. But I liked the photos on this site. I mentioned this Temple under the 'Five elements' theme.
According to the legend there was once a forest of Jambu trees at this location. Near by was a tank called Chandratheertha which was filled by water from the river Kaveri. Lord shiva appeared as a Lingam under one of the trees. Hence the name Jambukeshwara (and more on the name, you can search). Due to a curse, two of the shiva ganas Pushpadanta and Malyava, were born in the forest as a white elephant and as a spider. The elephant worshipped the Lingam with flowers and with water brought in its trunk. The spider too worshipped the Lingam, spinning out a web over the Lingam to prevent leaves of the tree from falling on it. The spider's web appeared to be unclean for the elephant and it destroyed the web. This lead to big clash between the two and ultimately resulted in their death. Lord shiva granted salvation to both.
Anyway, we were told that the river Kaveri water can be seen in the slabs under the lingam. I thought it was a spring underneath slab.
The concentric walls make the Jambukeshwara Temple more interesting and exciting. For the Shaivites the Jambukeshwara Temple is an absolute charm. There are also seven Gopurams and they are captivating for both the religiously inclined and the artistically minded.
The non Hindus are not allowed to enter the temple premises.
I was totally confused in some of these Temples. I am writing this in a rush to finish this post. Please feel free to make corrections or additional comments about this temple.www.googlemaps.com
Monday, July 7, 2008
Madurai and it's glory
This again is one of my favorite pilgrim places. My third visit (1985, 1987, 2007) to the great Temple of Goddess Meenakshi. In addition to being a religious center, Madurai is loaded with colleges of all categories. There are International students who study here participating in the student exchange programs.It is also famous for the cotton (hand loomed) chungidi sarees.
The land marks that make this city famous are Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple, Tirumala Nayakar mahal, Azhagar Koyil, Gandhi Museum and Tiruparankundram.
So far, we visited the Temples on the banks of river Kaveri. In Madurai the Meenakshi Temple is on the banks of the river Vaigai. Do you ever wonder why Hindu religion is the only one that gave so much importance to the female aspect of the divine?
This temple complex is dedicated to Shiva and Parvathi, known as Sundareshvarar and Meenakshi. The original temple was built by Kulasekara Pandya. But it was the Nayakars who brought out the glory into the current state in the 16th to 18th century.
Apart from the main temple, there are a number of smaller shrines. The pillared halls and towers and the twelve gopurams are very impressive. The gopurams are covered with colorful figurines of monsters (don't know why), mythical animals and a variety of deities. One may have to spend a life time to get to know the details of all these temples.
Temple Towers:
There are 12 temple towers(Gopurams).
Out of which the four at each direction of North, East, West and South are about 160 feet and have nine storeys. This temple is maintained very well. We were told that the figurines etc. are repaired and repainted every 12 years. Some work was going on when we were there.
Ashta Shakthi Mandapam:
This one is at the Eastern entrance. The sculptures here tell the stories of Lord Shiva's miracles and the life of Meenakshi ammal.
Meenakshi Nayakkar Mandapam:
This is adjacent to Ashta Shakthi Mandapam. This one has 110 pillars with animal figurines with a lion's body and elephant's hear. Again, I wonder why?
The Golden Lotus Tank:
This temple tank is where devotees took bath in the holy water. The area around this tank was the meeting place of the Tamil Sangam - the ancient academy of poets. The tank is surrounded by a pillared corridor. Steps lead down to the tank. Many of the ancient Temples have this arrangement in the South Indian Temples.
Oonjal(means swing)Mandapam:
This one is on the Western side of the tank. There are 28 pillars with sculptures depicting Hindu mythology. The parrots in the Kilikoontu mandapam (located here) are trained to repeat the name of Meenakshi. Every Friday, they have special ceremony at the Oonjal Mandapam.
Also worth seeing are the Kadambatadi Mandapam and a big hall called Velli (silver) Ambalam. Here, an idol of Nataraja is covered with silver leaves. Hence this hall is named as Velli Ambalam (Silver Hall).
The Thousand Pillar Mandapam:
In many Temples I have hear this word 'thousand pillared', never verified the number!!!. Do you think it is exact? Actually, here, the number of pillars count to 985 decorated columns. Exhibiting the 1200 years old history, there are so many other smaller and bigger mandapams in this temple.
Just outside this Mandapam ,towards the west, are the Musical Pillars. Each pillar when stuck, produces a different musical note.
Kalyana Mandapam
This one is one the South side. As the name indicates, every year during Chittirai festival (which is middle of April), Shiva and Parvathi's marriage is celebrated.
Vasantha Mandapam:
Vasantham means Spring season.
The Spring festival-is celebrated in this Mandapam in Vaikasi (April/May). The pillars have elaborate sculptures of Shiva, Meenakshi, scenes from their wedding as well as the figures of ten of the Nayak Kings and their consorts. This is also called Pudu (meaning new) Mandapam.
In each of these Temples, watching the elephants blessing the devotees is a delight!! We had enjoyable time and did purchase some sarees and sandals(out of neccessity) and bangles for the children and some small brass items.
My personal experience:
I had a very strange experience at this Temple. I must share this. Prior to reaching this Temple, I was a little frustrated with my life (not going the way I wanted it to go) and prayed in each Temple to 'take me away'. This was the last Temple I was going to cry hard. As we entered the first gopuram, a man in his fifties spoke from behind my right shoulder "amma, you people go in that direction". Even though we followed his way, I thought he was one of the self appointed guides. But I did not see him for a while. Then,out of the blue he appeared again and gave me a small package containing a photo of the idols,small packets of vibhti (holy ash) and kumkum. I was surprised, but accepted it. Finally, we entered the interior of the shrine and bending forward, the rope railing, I was about to send my prayer. I heard that man's voice on my right. I was in a shock. How did he get here? He said "amma, if you do not want rebirth, She is the only deity that will give you that boon. You should pray for that". He repeated it to make sure I heard him. Saying this, he left the premises. I did not see him again, but this time, I did not pray for 'death'.
The message I got from this experience was 'don't run away' from challenges. Prepare yourself for 'no rebirth'. After a few hours of pondering on this, I felt that the yatra was well worth the time and money. But it took me several months to put this into practice!!!
The land marks that make this city famous are Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple, Tirumala Nayakar mahal, Azhagar Koyil, Gandhi Museum and Tiruparankundram.
So far, we visited the Temples on the banks of river Kaveri. In Madurai the Meenakshi Temple is on the banks of the river Vaigai. Do you ever wonder why Hindu religion is the only one that gave so much importance to the female aspect of the divine?
This temple complex is dedicated to Shiva and Parvathi, known as Sundareshvarar and Meenakshi. The original temple was built by Kulasekara Pandya. But it was the Nayakars who brought out the glory into the current state in the 16th to 18th century.
Apart from the main temple, there are a number of smaller shrines. The pillared halls and towers and the twelve gopurams are very impressive. The gopurams are covered with colorful figurines of monsters (don't know why), mythical animals and a variety of deities. One may have to spend a life time to get to know the details of all these temples.
Temple Towers:
There are 12 temple towers(Gopurams).
Out of which the four at each direction of North, East, West and South are about 160 feet and have nine storeys. This temple is maintained very well. We were told that the figurines etc. are repaired and repainted every 12 years. Some work was going on when we were there.
Ashta Shakthi Mandapam:
This one is at the Eastern entrance. The sculptures here tell the stories of Lord Shiva's miracles and the life of Meenakshi ammal.
Meenakshi Nayakkar Mandapam:
This is adjacent to Ashta Shakthi Mandapam. This one has 110 pillars with animal figurines with a lion's body and elephant's hear. Again, I wonder why?
The Golden Lotus Tank:
This temple tank is where devotees took bath in the holy water. The area around this tank was the meeting place of the Tamil Sangam - the ancient academy of poets. The tank is surrounded by a pillared corridor. Steps lead down to the tank. Many of the ancient Temples have this arrangement in the South Indian Temples.
Oonjal(means swing)Mandapam:
This one is on the Western side of the tank. There are 28 pillars with sculptures depicting Hindu mythology. The parrots in the Kilikoontu mandapam (located here) are trained to repeat the name of Meenakshi. Every Friday, they have special ceremony at the Oonjal Mandapam.
Also worth seeing are the Kadambatadi Mandapam and a big hall called Velli (silver) Ambalam. Here, an idol of Nataraja is covered with silver leaves. Hence this hall is named as Velli Ambalam (Silver Hall).
The Thousand Pillar Mandapam:
In many Temples I have hear this word 'thousand pillared', never verified the number!!!. Do you think it is exact? Actually, here, the number of pillars count to 985 decorated columns. Exhibiting the 1200 years old history, there are so many other smaller and bigger mandapams in this temple.
Just outside this Mandapam ,towards the west, are the Musical Pillars. Each pillar when stuck, produces a different musical note.
Kalyana Mandapam
This one is one the South side. As the name indicates, every year during Chittirai festival (which is middle of April), Shiva and Parvathi's marriage is celebrated.
Vasantha Mandapam:
Vasantham means Spring season.
The Spring festival-is celebrated in this Mandapam in Vaikasi (April/May). The pillars have elaborate sculptures of Shiva, Meenakshi, scenes from their wedding as well as the figures of ten of the Nayak Kings and their consorts. This is also called Pudu (meaning new) Mandapam.
In each of these Temples, watching the elephants blessing the devotees is a delight!! We had enjoyable time and did purchase some sarees and sandals(out of neccessity) and bangles for the children and some small brass items.
My personal experience:
I had a very strange experience at this Temple. I must share this. Prior to reaching this Temple, I was a little frustrated with my life (not going the way I wanted it to go) and prayed in each Temple to 'take me away'. This was the last Temple I was going to cry hard. As we entered the first gopuram, a man in his fifties spoke from behind my right shoulder "amma, you people go in that direction". Even though we followed his way, I thought he was one of the self appointed guides. But I did not see him for a while. Then,out of the blue he appeared again and gave me a small package containing a photo of the idols,small packets of vibhti (holy ash) and kumkum. I was surprised, but accepted it. Finally, we entered the interior of the shrine and bending forward, the rope railing, I was about to send my prayer. I heard that man's voice on my right. I was in a shock. How did he get here? He said "amma, if you do not want rebirth, She is the only deity that will give you that boon. You should pray for that". He repeated it to make sure I heard him. Saying this, he left the premises. I did not see him again, but this time, I did not pray for 'death'.
The message I got from this experience was 'don't run away' from challenges. Prepare yourself for 'no rebirth'. After a few hours of pondering on this, I felt that the yatra was well worth the time and money. But it took me several months to put this into practice!!!
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Srirangam and Tiruchinapalli
After a lot of discussion, we decided to go to Palani only for a day trip later. We realised that we needed an extra day for us to cover our list of temples. My niece Padmaja's son Harish who is a student at SASTRA University in Trichy (Tiruchinapally)was also on our list. But we had no time to see him neither on the campus nor his room (which he and all of us very much wanted to do). We asked him to come and meet us in a hotel instead. He took a bus from his hostel and met us. He accompanied us to the Ranganatha Temple in Srirangam. Where ever they allowed, he took photos with his Cell phone and later on sent them to me. Harish did a great job. He came to the hotel room with us and rested a little bit. Now about the Ranganatha Swamy Temple in Srirangam:
Apart from being the first of the 108 Vishnu Sthalas, Srirangam is also listed as one of the Navagraha Sthalas. I have visited six of them so far. The last one in Tirunallur, of Saturn, I don't think I had visited. The list of Navagraha sthalas is:
Suryanarcoil........Sun
Tirupati............Moon
Palani..............Mars
Madurai.............Mercury
Tiruchendur.........Jupiter
Srirangam...........Venus
Tirunallaru.........Saturn
And I need to add the other two planets Rahu and Ketu:
Thirunageswaram – Rahu
Keezhaperumpallam – Ketu
Well, the rest of the group was not really interested in this aspect. It is just that I am interested in both Astrology and Astronomy.
Srirangam is 2 km from Tiruchirapalli and is the most important Temple for Vaishnavas. The Deity is Lord Ranganatha and is reclining on Ananta Sesha. His consort is Ranganayaki. The area covering this Temple is over 150 acres and is surrounded by the Rivers Kaveri and Kolladam. Well, the Ranganatha Temple in my native town Nellore is on the banks of the river Pennar.
Unlike most deities which face east, Ranganatha faces south towards Lanka to bless Vibhishana (Ravana's brother who befriended Raama) and his kingdom. It is said that Vibhishana returns every 12 years to perform the worship of Lord Ranganatha.
This temple has a very interesting history. It was the headquarters of Sri Ramanuja acharya (who established Vaishnavism??) for many years and it is here that he entered Samadhi at the age of 120.(WOW!!!). His samadhi shrine can be seen here. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu himself made deities of Jagannatha, Baldeva and Subhadra and installed them here. There are other deities in the temple enclosure including that of Laksmi, Sudarsana and Narasimha.
I have visited this Temple also in 1987, but, this time, I got to see in detail. In 1987 it was a package tour of 6 nights and we were rushed in all the Temples. Even in darsan line, like in Tirumala Venkateswara Temple, we were pushed forward by the crowd as well as by the volunteers, priests and the like. Another thing I was uncomfortable with was with the fact that most of these Temples, did not allow non-Hindus after a certain point. There are signs posted and if you missed it, the volunteers/employees stop you very politely ofcourse!! I wondered how they can identify a non-Hindu Indian man!!!I understand the dress-code part.
The architecture again was exquisite. As I promised before, the photos will be posted separately.
Prior to my visiting Trichy, I did not know about Srirangam's location. The name Tiruchy reminded me only of the great mridangam player Tiruchy Sankaran. Do you, all music lovers agree??
Apart from being the first of the 108 Vishnu Sthalas, Srirangam is also listed as one of the Navagraha Sthalas. I have visited six of them so far. The last one in Tirunallur, of Saturn, I don't think I had visited. The list of Navagraha sthalas is:
Suryanarcoil........Sun
Tirupati............Moon
Palani..............Mars
Madurai.............Mercury
Tiruchendur.........Jupiter
Srirangam...........Venus
Tirunallaru.........Saturn
And I need to add the other two planets Rahu and Ketu:
Thirunageswaram – Rahu
Keezhaperumpallam – Ketu
Well, the rest of the group was not really interested in this aspect. It is just that I am interested in both Astrology and Astronomy.
Srirangam is 2 km from Tiruchirapalli and is the most important Temple for Vaishnavas. The Deity is Lord Ranganatha and is reclining on Ananta Sesha. His consort is Ranganayaki. The area covering this Temple is over 150 acres and is surrounded by the Rivers Kaveri and Kolladam. Well, the Ranganatha Temple in my native town Nellore is on the banks of the river Pennar.
Unlike most deities which face east, Ranganatha faces south towards Lanka to bless Vibhishana (Ravana's brother who befriended Raama) and his kingdom. It is said that Vibhishana returns every 12 years to perform the worship of Lord Ranganatha.
This temple has a very interesting history. It was the headquarters of Sri Ramanuja acharya (who established Vaishnavism??) for many years and it is here that he entered Samadhi at the age of 120.(WOW!!!). His samadhi shrine can be seen here. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu himself made deities of Jagannatha, Baldeva and Subhadra and installed them here. There are other deities in the temple enclosure including that of Laksmi, Sudarsana and Narasimha.
I have visited this Temple also in 1987, but, this time, I got to see in detail. In 1987 it was a package tour of 6 nights and we were rushed in all the Temples. Even in darsan line, like in Tirumala Venkateswara Temple, we were pushed forward by the crowd as well as by the volunteers, priests and the like. Another thing I was uncomfortable with was with the fact that most of these Temples, did not allow non-Hindus after a certain point. There are signs posted and if you missed it, the volunteers/employees stop you very politely ofcourse!! I wondered how they can identify a non-Hindu Indian man!!!I understand the dress-code part.
The architecture again was exquisite. As I promised before, the photos will be posted separately.
Prior to my visiting Trichy, I did not know about Srirangam's location. The name Tiruchy reminded me only of the great mridangam player Tiruchy Sankaran. Do you, all music lovers agree??
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Thiruverkadu, Maangadu, Mookambika
I should have written this post long before the other Tamil nadu posts. When I first landed in Chennai in October 2007, I expressed the desire to Mohan and Priya that I wanted to visit the Thiruverkadu Temple. They happily agreed to take me there. They were the ones who introduced me to this Temple. The first time I had darsan of Karumari Amman, the main deity there, was just before my daughter was married to their son (in 2004). Once again, we all - Mohan and Priya, Mohan's parents, Sridhar (their second son) and me were there. It is a small Temple in a small town.
Thiruverkadu literally means a forest of holy herbs and roots and is a western suburb of Chennai. We hired a Taxi for the trip.The Temple was crowded that day, but it was manageable. Special pooja sponsors were sitting in an enclosed area. The Devi idol was enchanting. Just outside the Temple was a huge snake pit. The three women in the group, we walked around the pit. There were offerings of milk, broken eggs for the snake (I am not sure anyone ever gets to see that snake). I could not bear the smell of eggs.
The next Temple was of Kamakshi Amman of Mangadu. Mangadu (meaning forest of mango trees)is a small town situated 24 Kms away from Chennai and all these three Temples are near Poonamallee.
In this Mangadu, the story goes that Goddess Sri Kamakshi came and started her penance standing on the PANCHAGNI in the midst of forest of Mango trees. Then Lord Siva appeared before her and married her at Kancheepuram. The local belief is that in the same way, if any unmarried woman, comes and offers vows to Sri Kamakshi, she gets married very soon. We witnessed some dance and music program by local students and famous artists like mandolin Srinivasan that day. My ears perked up with joy when I saw them perform dance to the kriti Kanjadalaayatakshi...., which was the first kriti I learnt in my high school music class. We moved on to the third Temple which was amore recent addition to the area.
At the Mookambika Temple, we were greeted very graciously. This particular location is called Panachikkadu (I don't know the meaning - all I know is kadu means forest). This Mookambika Temple is also known as Dakshina Mookambika. I guess this is fairly new at this location. (There is one in Kollur, Karnataka also). The Temple at Panachikkadu is dedicated to Goddess Saraswati, the Goddess of knowledge and learning and is very famous for 'Vidyarambham'. We met the lady who founded this in the South. She asked us to have a meal which was being served for free for many visitors. But we could not have it that day!!
Thiruverkadu literally means a forest of holy herbs and roots and is a western suburb of Chennai. We hired a Taxi for the trip.The Temple was crowded that day, but it was manageable. Special pooja sponsors were sitting in an enclosed area. The Devi idol was enchanting. Just outside the Temple was a huge snake pit. The three women in the group, we walked around the pit. There were offerings of milk, broken eggs for the snake (I am not sure anyone ever gets to see that snake). I could not bear the smell of eggs.
The next Temple was of Kamakshi Amman of Mangadu. Mangadu (meaning forest of mango trees)is a small town situated 24 Kms away from Chennai and all these three Temples are near Poonamallee.
In this Mangadu, the story goes that Goddess Sri Kamakshi came and started her penance standing on the PANCHAGNI in the midst of forest of Mango trees. Then Lord Siva appeared before her and married her at Kancheepuram. The local belief is that in the same way, if any unmarried woman, comes and offers vows to Sri Kamakshi, she gets married very soon. We witnessed some dance and music program by local students and famous artists like mandolin Srinivasan that day. My ears perked up with joy when I saw them perform dance to the kriti Kanjadalaayatakshi...., which was the first kriti I learnt in my high school music class. We moved on to the third Temple which was amore recent addition to the area.
At the Mookambika Temple, we were greeted very graciously. This particular location is called Panachikkadu (I don't know the meaning - all I know is kadu means forest). This Mookambika Temple is also known as Dakshina Mookambika. I guess this is fairly new at this location. (There is one in Kollur, Karnataka also). The Temple at Panachikkadu is dedicated to Goddess Saraswati, the Goddess of knowledge and learning and is very famous for 'Vidyarambham'. We met the lady who founded this in the South. She asked us to have a meal which was being served for free for many visitors. But we could not have it that day!!
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Dravidian and about me!!
In my previous post and some other posts I mentioned that the architecture was Dravidian style. For some of my friends, who are not familiar with the term Dravidian, at this point I wanted to see the documents about who they are and what are some of the the languages of the Dravidians. Among many of us there is a misconception about this. Recently, someone told me that I am a Dravidian (since Tamil is my mother tongue) whereas they are Aryans since their tongue is Telugu (even gave me the meaning of Aryans as superior people). I am very happy to be a Dravidian. I can speak, read and write Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Hindi and English, of course. I can read Malayalam, but understand only some. My strength is in Telugu and English languages. My conclusion - all these four languages are Dravidian ones. Click on the highlighted words and read for yourselves. Please feel free to share your knowledge - all readers!!
Tanjavur (Tanjore) - Brihadeeswara Temple
This was my second visit to this wonderful place. The first time being in 1987 with my children Gopal and Gayatri and my friend Sulochana. Surprisingly, I have more fond memories of this place from my first trip than from the current trip. I felt strongly then that the Indian govt. should be spending money on renovating and maintaining this kind of beauty, history, tradition etc. It may not attract as many tourists as the Taj Mahal does (which is beautiful, but, nothing but a tomb). Anyway, this place takes you back into history. The exterior of the temples did not look colorful. The compound was huge. I took some photos of the Saraswathi mahal (library). I am trying to upload photos - for unknown reasons, this blogger travels into 'infinity' and finally, I am closing it. Be patient with me for a few weeks and I will have a separate post of all the photos.Thanjavur is very famous for the paintings. Commonly known as Tanjore paintings. Nirmala gave one of Lord Venkateswara to Gayatri as a wedding present. It is exquisite!!!
The famous Temple here is of Brihadiswara, a Shiva Temple. The inside shrine wasn't that huge. Perhaps the Royal family of ancient times built this just for their family!!!!!
It takes a life time to really see all that is here in these temples. This visit was the first one for the other four in the group. They were extremely happy. Now about this Temple in detail:
The entrance on the east, where we enter, is very imposing. On either side of this are two small shrines of Ganapathi and Subrahmanyam (Murugan). When you walk further, there is a Gopuram about 90 feet in height. This way leads into an outer court. A second and more magnificent Gopuram leads us to the main court in which the temple is built. The inner court is is surrounded by something like a court yard about 500 feet long and 250 feet broad and is well paved with brick and stone. The western and northern wings have Sivalingams and there are paintings over these walls depicting sixty-four Nayanars. The outer portion of this temple is about 800 ft X 300 ft (a little less perhaps)
The main shrine is of Brihadeeswara (I am not even attempting the Tamil pronunciation here) which in Samskrit means, the Great God. It is situated on the western end of this court yard.
Besides the the Sanctum sactorum (garbhagriham), there are 5 mandapams here. I think this why the actual temple appeared small to me. Several in the same yard!!. Anyway, the five mandapams are:
Araadhana mandapam, Maha mandapam, Narthana mandapam, Sthapana mandapam and Vaadya mandapam.
Sthapana mandapam has a shrine for the great saint Thyagaraja.
The statues of the dwarapalakas (guardians of the gate) were exquisite!! The sivalinga is the grandest!
The tower over the shrine is called Dakshina Meru (at Kailasam, it is the Uttara-Meru).
There is a lot of history about the king Rajaraja Cholan who reigned this part of the country and I don't have much knowledge in that area.
The great Vimana is a little over 200 feet and is of the Dravidian style of architecture, and has fourteen storeys.
The other sub-shrines are of Subrahmanya (northwest corner), Goddess Brihanayaki, Ganapathi, Chandeeswara. Dakshinamurthy and Nataraja on the Northeast corner. Worth mentioning are the great Dhwaja-sthambham and the huge Nandi (the sacred bull) located in the center. The Nandi measures 12ft in height and close 20 ft, in length and width and weighs about 20 tons. There are two versions of where the stone was brought from and I forgot what they were.
The famous Temple here is of Brihadiswara, a Shiva Temple. The inside shrine wasn't that huge. Perhaps the Royal family of ancient times built this just for their family!!!!!
It takes a life time to really see all that is here in these temples. This visit was the first one for the other four in the group. They were extremely happy. Now about this Temple in detail:
The entrance on the east, where we enter, is very imposing. On either side of this are two small shrines of Ganapathi and Subrahmanyam (Murugan). When you walk further, there is a Gopuram about 90 feet in height. This way leads into an outer court. A second and more magnificent Gopuram leads us to the main court in which the temple is built. The inner court is is surrounded by something like a court yard about 500 feet long and 250 feet broad and is well paved with brick and stone. The western and northern wings have Sivalingams and there are paintings over these walls depicting sixty-four Nayanars. The outer portion of this temple is about 800 ft X 300 ft (a little less perhaps)
The main shrine is of Brihadeeswara (I am not even attempting the Tamil pronunciation here) which in Samskrit means, the Great God. It is situated on the western end of this court yard.
Besides the the Sanctum sactorum (garbhagriham), there are 5 mandapams here. I think this why the actual temple appeared small to me. Several in the same yard!!. Anyway, the five mandapams are:
Araadhana mandapam, Maha mandapam, Narthana mandapam, Sthapana mandapam and Vaadya mandapam.
Sthapana mandapam has a shrine for the great saint Thyagaraja.
The statues of the dwarapalakas (guardians of the gate) were exquisite!! The sivalinga is the grandest!
The tower over the shrine is called Dakshina Meru (at Kailasam, it is the Uttara-Meru).
There is a lot of history about the king Rajaraja Cholan who reigned this part of the country and I don't have much knowledge in that area.
The great Vimana is a little over 200 feet and is of the Dravidian style of architecture, and has fourteen storeys.
The other sub-shrines are of Subrahmanya (northwest corner), Goddess Brihanayaki, Ganapathi, Chandeeswara. Dakshinamurthy and Nataraja on the Northeast corner. Worth mentioning are the great Dhwaja-sthambham and the huge Nandi (the sacred bull) located in the center. The Nandi measures 12ft in height and close 20 ft, in length and width and weighs about 20 tons. There are two versions of where the stone was brought from and I forgot what they were.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Tiruchanur question
This question was asked "Why go to Tiruchanur first?" (see the comment under the post dated May 9th in "Second Yatra begins" )
In the Vaishnava sampradayam, one has to take the blessings of the Thayar first because she is the one who forgives all our shortcomings and faults and intercedes with the Lord on our behalf. For those of you who know the first slokam in Venkateswara Prapatthi,
“Easaanaam jagathosya venkatapather Vishnoh paraampreyaseem,
thadvakshasthala nithya vaasara sikaam tatkshaanthi samvardhineem
padmaalankrita paani pallava yugaam padmaasanastham sriam vaatstalyaadi gunojvalaam bhagavateem vandey Jagan maatharam" (please forgive the typos. This is just for a reference).
It is a prayer to her. Great saints like Annamaacharya, Thyagaraja also prayed to her for blessings from the Lord Venkateswara.
In the Vaishnava sampradayam, one has to take the blessings of the Thayar first because she is the one who forgives all our shortcomings and faults and intercedes with the Lord on our behalf. For those of you who know the first slokam in Venkateswara Prapatthi,
“Easaanaam jagathosya venkatapather Vishnoh paraampreyaseem,
thadvakshasthala nithya vaasara sikaam tatkshaanthi samvardhineem
padmaalankrita paani pallava yugaam padmaasanastham sriam vaatstalyaadi gunojvalaam bhagavateem vandey Jagan maatharam" (please forgive the typos. This is just for a reference).
It is a prayer to her. Great saints like Annamaacharya, Thyagaraja also prayed to her for blessings from the Lord Venkateswara.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Rameswaram saga continued,,,,,,,,,,,
This is one place I would like to go to visit again and again. I felt very peaceful here. All the five of us decided to do 'samudra snanam' (dip in the ocean). The waves were not high. They were not even close to the ones I saw in the Atlantic ocean in New Jersey and the Pacific ocean in California. I was not afraid of waters anyway. The couples held each other's hands and took three dips in that salt water (yucky salty - some got in to the mouth). Nirmala was uncomfortable and I had to help her put her head inside the water. I collected some sand in a bag to take back to Varanasi, to offer it to Lord Viswanatha. We brought Ganga water from Varanasi from our Chardham trip to offer it to Lord Shiva in Rameswaram. Hopefully our return trip to Varanasi would be like a pradakshinam and would complete our journey. When we came out, fully clothed and our clothes dripping in water, we found out that they would not allow us like that into the Temple. Which meant we had to find a place to change into dry clothes. Many Indian pilgrims have the knack of changing clothes on the banks of rivers etc., in public, but very discreetly. We did not have that talent.
Now, Nirmala got the bright idea about the Kalivela choultry and thought that we could get a room there. They had establishments in many other holy places. Nirmala and I had donated money to this organization on separate trips to Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh. Actually, we qualified for a free room and board in any of their choultries. But that day, all we needed was a room to change our clothes. After some inquiries, we found the place. The man at the front desk was not as polite as we had hoped. Nirmala offered some money and they let us use the room to shower and change.
As we entered the Temple, a man greeted us. I had my Ganga water container ready to offer to Shiva and I told him that. He told Rao that he would be our guide.( We tried to convince him and as well as Rao that we did not need one). But we failed. By the way, this happens in many Temples. You have to be firm or be ready to pay whatever they charge you at the end. Anyway, we were charged 800 rupees which included handing us over to other so called guides. One took us for the shower in the sacred wells. He got a bucket full of water out of each well and poured on our heads. Each well had a name like Ganga, Yamuna, Savithri, Saraswathi and so on. I remembered that in 1987 only Sulochana went through this procedure. My children and I just sprinkled a few drops of the sacred water on our heads. We walked in clothes dripping with water from well to well (these are actually sweet water springs. There was a place to change into dry clothes, which we did. And finally a priest who was part of this group was wonderful and guided us in performing the ancestral rites.I asked him on our way out, how much he got out of the 800 Rupees. He got only 200 rupees. The others just walked with us. I gave him an extra 300 from my purse. He gave me some sand also to take back to Varanasi. I saved this package and threw away the one I collected.
We went to the interior shrine and I was anxiously waiting to offer the Ganga water and the crowd was pushing us. We had bought some flowers and fruits to offer( from a shop outside the shrine). Rao asked me to leave the Ganga water container in that small offering basket. Witnessing that abhishekam was very important for me because not many people are blessed with this opportunity of bringing Ganga water. I fell behind because of the crowd pushing and the other four went ahead and had darsan and told me that our container with the holy water was opened and the water was poured on the Shiva lingam.
I was disappointed that I did not witness that. I got irritated that my companions did not wait for me when giving out our names and gothram etc. to the priest. But the crowd was unruly and they probably could not help but move with the crowd. My ego was hurt because I felt that I was the one who remembered to bring it with us and I was the one who carried it around so carefully.
After the tour of the rest of the Temple, we went back to the choultry to pick up our bags of some wet clothes. The management there asked us to have a meal. It was a simple, wonderful and satvic meal, cooked and served by two women volunteers. It was tough for us women to sit on the floor to eat. The two men were ok. Our driver also was served his meal in separate quarters. Now we got into the car and continued on our journey.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Panchabhootha sthalams - the 5 elements
Mandapam on the right is made of Rudrakshas - very artistic!!
Panchabhootha sthalams are five ancient temples in India where Lord Shiva is represented in the form of five elements – Air, Earth, Ether, Fire and Water.
The following are the five temples that represent Shiva in the form of five elements:
Air – Sri Kalahasti Temple at Kalahasti in Andhra Pradesh – Vayu Linga represents the element air or wind here. A continuous flame flickers when there is no air source in the interior of the temple.
Earth – Ekambareswara Temple in Kanchipuram – Shivalingam here is the element earth.It is believed to have been created by Goddess Parvathi from sand or earth.
Ether – Nataraja Temple at Chidambaram – Shiva is represented as ether or sky in an empty space. I mentioned this in my post on Chidambaram (as the Chidambara rahasyam}. Ether is known as ‘akasha’ in Sanskrit and is also referred as Sky (or Space) .
Fire – Arunachaleswara Temple or Annamalaiyar Temple at Thiruvannamalai – Here, Shiva represents the element fire.
Water – Jambukeshwara Temple or Thiruvanaikaval Shiva Temple in Srirangam – Jambukeshwara represents the element water. The deity is found under a Jambu tree over a small river. The small stream engulfs the idol during the rainy season.
I have seen all the five lingams mentioned above. Our future plan is to cover all of the 12 Jyothirlingam Temples. Of the 12, we have seen Srisailam, Kedarnath and Varanasi (during our Chardham trip) and Rameswaram . The Northern most is the Kedarnath Temple and the Southern most is the Rameswaram Temple. It sounds more exciting when you document like this!!!
Friday, June 6, 2008
Rameswaram
Now I am visible!!
No, Nirmala was not the photographer. We found a stranger who volunteered to take one.
I want to mention here that I am not posting in the order that we visited. Whichever place comes to my mind at the time I post, that is where we are going. Today, I would like to take you to Rameswaram. The drive was beautiful. I love waters, especially the water that makes sound - either water falls or water waves!!
Before giving an account of my experience, I want to add these.
This Shiva Temple (Shivasthalam) is one of the 12 Jyotirlingams and the southernmost one.
This was my second visit to Rameswaram. The first one was in 1987 with my friend Sulochana and my two children. My parents visited here in the early fifties and I still have the sea shells that they brought home. I was with them during their trip to Varanasi, but they left us behind for this trip.
This temple is mentioned in the Ramayana and is of historic and spiritual importance. It is famous for long corridors and towers. There are 36 teerthams (I am not sure about the number) out of which 22 are in the Temple compund. These waters have medicinal value, they say. It is said that Rama worshipped Shiva here before returning to his kingdom in Ayodhya. There are two lingams here. One installed by Rama himself (made of sand or earth by Sita) is called Ramalingam and the other brought by Hanuman from Kasi (Varanasi) is called kasilingam. Why two lingams? Well, Hanuman was sent on this errand to Kasi. But the auspicious moment was arriving and Rama anticipated a delay in Hanuman's return and decided to go ahead with the pooja. The Kasi lingam is also called Hanuma lingam.
The architecture is awesome. the Nandi (the bull) is huge. Probably 18X20 feet. The gopuram (tower?) is about 125 feet tall.T he corridors are probably the longest in the world. I have taken some photos of these corridors and will add them later. There are more than 4000 pillars in these corridors. A must see. We were told that these rocks were imported from other parts of Tamil Nadu and are not local to that area. There is a lot modern history attached to this Temple. You can visit other sites for more details.
More to come............
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
General Information
See the driver in the middle!!!!! Click on any photo to see it enlarged.
I know that I wrote that we did not make any advance hotel reservations. we did not have any problem finding good ones after some search and after more driving. having come to the conclusion that our driver had no knowledge of the province.
But we went during rainy, non-peak season. If at all possible, I would advise that you make some arrangement. Another thing disappointing to me was that no hotel served a full meal for dinner. Only Tiffin (palaharam) type. Dosa, Idli, parata, poori etc. I got tired of it after a few nights. Lunch time meals were great!! I finished my Granola bars too soon. Before we started on this trip we were told by some of our relatives that drinking water could be a problem in Tamil Nadu. But each hotel we stayed in supplied us with good supply of water to drink, hot water to bathe etc. We spent very little money on bottled water on this trip. We spent a lot on our Chardham trip. Most of the hotels were located near shopping areas, internet service facilities, pharmacies (drug stores), auto rickshaw and Taxi stands.
If any of you have useful advice, please feel free to post your comments.
Swamimalai etc.
Nirmala's research and list said that we visit atleast six Subrahmanya Swami (Murugan) Temples. Swamimalai was one of them - which being close to Kumbakonam, we covered in this trip. There are many in the Southern states of India. I remember the following names in Tamilnadu: Tiruparamkundram, Thiruchendur, Swamimalai (Swaminatha Swami), Palani (Dandayudhapani) and Tiruthani Temples. When my sister was working as a professor in Palani, I visited the Palani Subrahmanya Temple, the first time. When we were students in SV University, Nirmala and I visited the Tiruttani temple a few times. Thiruchendur Murugan Temple, I visited with my children and my friend Sulochana in 1987.
Swamimalai temple: This is about 10 km from Kumbakonam. The story goes that this is where Murugan taught the meaning of "OM" to His father Lord Shiva. This was the first time I came here. His consorts are Valli and Devayani. This is another thing that intrigued me. In Andhra, we say Devasena not Devayani. Also, Devayani was Sukra's (the guru of Demons = raakshsasa) daughter who married the king Yayati. for those who want to know more, please click on the names. It is a long story and from the epic Mahabharata.
Thiruvalansuzhi Vinayakar Temple: Actually, this is more of Shiva Temple, but is famous for the Vinayaka sculpture which is white in color. Normally, all the statues are black or dark slate color (For those of you who don't know). This is located about 4 kms from Kumbakonam and is very close to Swamimalai. The speciality of this Temple is that the river Kaveri (Cauvery) prayed to Lord Siva by doing apradakshinam (doing pradakshinam from right to left. Normally in any Temple, we do it from left to right, which is clockwise)) The name for lord Siva in this temple is "Sadai mudi nathar".
Most of the Tamilians know about Avvaiyar, a great devotee of Murugan. I still remember my father taking me (when we were visiting my relatives in Chennai) to see this movie about her devotion and how Lord Muruga came in the form of a young boy to test her devotion. In those days, I did not understand much Tamil. But, we both had interest in listening to the music. She was a poetess also.
Swamimalai temple: This is about 10 km from Kumbakonam. The story goes that this is where Murugan taught the meaning of "OM" to His father Lord Shiva. This was the first time I came here. His consorts are Valli and Devayani. This is another thing that intrigued me. In Andhra, we say Devasena not Devayani. Also, Devayani was Sukra's (the guru of Demons = raakshsasa) daughter who married the king Yayati. for those who want to know more, please click on the names. It is a long story and from the epic Mahabharata.
Thiruvalansuzhi Vinayakar Temple: Actually, this is more of Shiva Temple, but is famous for the Vinayaka sculpture which is white in color. Normally, all the statues are black or dark slate color (For those of you who don't know). This is located about 4 kms from Kumbakonam and is very close to Swamimalai. The speciality of this Temple is that the river Kaveri (Cauvery) prayed to Lord Siva by doing apradakshinam (doing pradakshinam from right to left. Normally in any Temple, we do it from left to right, which is clockwise)) The name for lord Siva in this temple is "Sadai mudi nathar".
Most of the Tamilians know about Avvaiyar, a great devotee of Murugan. I still remember my father taking me (when we were visiting my relatives in Chennai) to see this movie about her devotion and how Lord Muruga came in the form of a young boy to test her devotion. In those days, I did not understand much Tamil. But, we both had interest in listening to the music. She was a poetess also.
Friday, May 30, 2008
More Temples around Kumbhakonam
Nageswara Temple is another small one where Lord Shiva is worshipped and we saw a Temple for Rahu also (one of the nine celestial bodies in the Navagraha. [Actually, we saw Temples for all the major planets. Sun (Surya), Moon (Soma or Chandra), Venus (Sukra, is a male in Vedic astrology), Jupiter (Guru), Mercury (Budha), Saturn (Sani). Mars (Kuja) plus the nodes (Rahu and Ketu)]
The attraction in this Temple is Shiva is worshipped in several forms. On the North, which means South facing is that of Lord Dakshinamurti (Shiva as teacher), on the west Ardhanarishvara (Shiva and Shakti in one figure) and Brahma on the south. Almost life-size sculptures of some devotees, donors or royalty are carved along the corridors. I did not see any history written about them. The Nataraja shrine here is shaped in the form of a chariot, and the shrine dedicated to the Sun God.
Other Temples we saw included that of Shiva as Pathala Beejanatha. Pralayakaala Rudra and that of Kaali.
We were told that the Sun's rays fall on Nageswara on the 11th through the 13th day of the Tamil month Chithirai (Aries).
We were there in the winter month of November, so, did not witness this.
The temples at Thirunageswaram:
There are two major temples at Thirunageswaram. One is that of Oppliyappan, which is one of the famous 108 Divyadesams.
The other is that of ThiruNageswara. I don't remember much about these Temples.
The list of all the Temples we saw is so huge, I am surprised that I am able to keep track of this much.
The attraction in this Temple is Shiva is worshipped in several forms. On the North, which means South facing is that of Lord Dakshinamurti (Shiva as teacher), on the west Ardhanarishvara (Shiva and Shakti in one figure) and Brahma on the south. Almost life-size sculptures of some devotees, donors or royalty are carved along the corridors. I did not see any history written about them. The Nataraja shrine here is shaped in the form of a chariot, and the shrine dedicated to the Sun God.
Other Temples we saw included that of Shiva as Pathala Beejanatha. Pralayakaala Rudra and that of Kaali.
We were told that the Sun's rays fall on Nageswara on the 11th through the 13th day of the Tamil month Chithirai (Aries).
We were there in the winter month of November, so, did not witness this.
The temples at Thirunageswaram:
There are two major temples at Thirunageswaram. One is that of Oppliyappan, which is one of the famous 108 Divyadesams.
The other is that of ThiruNageswara. I don't remember much about these Temples.
The list of all the Temples we saw is so huge, I am surprised that I am able to keep track of this much.
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