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.

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.

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

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).

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.

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.

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.