Tour of Kerala & (Rest of) Tamilnadu

 Although I wanted to post something in past few months, it just is coincidental that I am writing a sequel of my previous post about our Tamilnadu tour. This fresh trip, is a sequel to our previous Tamilnadu trip and, covered what we could not cover earlier in Tamilnadu plus places of interest in Kerala which we never visited before. This may be a slightly lengthy post but I hope it doesn't bore you because I sandwiched it with interesting information, lot of experiences and hidden details.

Introduction

 We, a family of 4 people (this time, 2 adults and 2 kids) planned to travel most parts of Kerala and few parts of Tamilnadu to visit multiple temples which are of great historical, architectural and religious importance. But its not just temples, we planned to visit beaches, naturistic places, sculptures and places of tourist importance. This was in Oct 2024 lasting for 7 days - primarily during the Navratri festival time. I will not provide much details about each temple as the information is already available in the internet. This is more of an informational post. So, post any questions in the comments. The planning was personally done by us after doing some level of research from family, friends and internet. Remember that in Kerala, temples have specific timings and most of the temples have dress codes. In most places, gents should remove all their upper clothing like shirts, vests etc and go to visit inside the temples.

So what places did we plan to go to?

These are the places at a high level but if you read further, there were many other places we visited as we drove through.

• 
  Thiruvananthapuram, KL
• Suchindram, TN
• Nagercovil, TN
• Kanyakumari, TN
• Thiruchendur, TN
• Rameshwaram, TN
• Madurai, TN
• Coimbatore, TN
• Guruvayur, KL
• Nelluvaya, KL
• Thrissur, KL
• Kalady, KL

If you compare this map from our previous post, we have a sense of satisfaction that we are able to visit almost all high importance tourist places of 2 states of India. These 2 states have  a large number of places with tourist importance.

Having said that, I should list down what we didn't cover in these 2 states in past 2 years. This is just because we visited those places in the past and may be we should re-visit them some time later but not part of long trips.

• Ooty, TN
• Kodaikanal, TN
• Thiruttani, TN
• Kancheepuram, TN
• Vellore, TN
• Alleppey Backwaters, KL
• Munnar, KL
• Sabarimala, KL

Details

Day 0 - Reached Thiruvananthapuram by Air and reached hotel by 10 PM.

Day 1 - We went to the centuries old Lord Anantha Padmanabhaswamy temple, early hours to avoid crowd. Here, the main deity is so large, in reclining position on the Anantha Naga, that we see the deity from three doors, one showing his face, one showing his chest part and one showing his legs. The right hand which is clearly visible compared to the rest of the body is itself huge. The dravidian/Kerala style of temple architectures are very different from the Tamilnadu temples. This temple has many small time slots of darshan in a day and a visitor should know this information when they go for a visit. Google the open timings of the temple before you plan your day of visit here.
After visiting the Lord few times in those peaceful early hours and visiting rest of the temple, we clicked selfies, visited the Mahaganapati temple, had breakfast and waited for our pre- booked taxi.

As the taxi we booked for rest of the trip arrived, we visited the Parasurama temple and Attukal Bhagavathi Amman temple. The Parasuram Temple is located at a place where Lord Parasuraman is said to have created the lands Kerela by throwing his axe and as a result, the sea water backed off. This tells why backwaters are situated only in Kerela. After this, we went to Jatayu Earth Centre.

Jatayu Earth Center

 It is said that this is the place where Jatayu, a vulture and an immense devotee of Lord Sriram, was killed by Ravan while trying to rescue Sita Maa. This is also the place where Jatayu attained moksha with the help of Rama, and we can see Sriram's footprint. There is also a temple devoted to Sriram here. In the evening, we visited the Varkala Beach and cliff view. The cliff is known for its cinematic view of the beach below it. Such are the wonders of nature, aren't they! On the cliff, there are great places if you are a night life freak. We came back to Thiruvananthapuram and called it a loooong day!

Sunset at varkala beach

Day 2 -  The next day we checked out of our hotel in Thiruvananthapuram. Remember that hotels in Kerala have varied checkout times no matter when you check in. It should be taken into consideration when you plan for your trip and hotels. Today's target was to reach Kanyakumari by sunset. The Kovalam beach was closed due to high tide. So - first, we went to the Azhimalai Shiva temple. Its main attraction is the huge Shiva statue which depicts the story of  Gangavatharan or how the river Ganga came from the heaven to earth. We went to Poovar, well known for its backwaters. We first took a boat ride in the backwaters where one could feel mother nature in a very intimate way. It was here that some parts of the movie Anaconda were shot.

Poovar backwaters

While boat riding, we can see different types of birds, plants and even types of fishes. It took us 15 minutes to come to the. Golden sand beach. It was very hot. So, we were only there for a little time in the beach and we came back on our journey to

Golden sand beach island in Poovar

Kanyakumari. The next place we want to visit is the Padmanabhapuram palace, which is a well preserved palace of the Kerala kings. However we did not go inside it to save some time. Next on the way, we went to the Aadikeshav Perumal temple in Thiruvattaru. It is one of the 108 Perumal divyadesams and known for its resemblance of the Ananta Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram. The Adikeshava perumal temple is older than Ananta Padmanabhaswamy temple. Here we see the deity in the exact opposite direction of what we see in Anantapadmanabhaswamy temple, i.e., from the leftmost door, we can see his legs, in the central door, we ca see his stomach region and in the rightmost door, we can see his head and hands, which is vice-versa in the Anantapadmanabhaswamy temple. It is believed that the moolasthanam of Anantapadmanabhaswamy temple, Adikesavaperumal temple and Sri Ranganatha Swamy temple in Srirangam is Anantapadanabhaswamy temple. The temple is made of 16,008 Saligrama stones. 

From there, we went to Thirupurappu falls which is located near the temple.

Thiruppurapu water falls

After lunch, we thought of seeing  Suchindram and Nagercoil but could not cover Nagercoil as we were close to the sunset time in Kanyakumari. We visited the Trimurthy temple in Suchindram.It is said that everynight, Lord Indra comes to this temple and does a puja to the Trimurthy deity. That is why, every night, the priests of the temple keep all the required things in the sanctum (garbha gruha) and lock it from the outside, and by morning, the deity looks like he had been offered puja and all the puja utensils are freshly used. From here, we went to Kanyakumari to watch the sunset (it was a bit cloudy 😥) and in the late evening, we visited Kanyakumari Amman. The specialty of the Amman here is that she is standing and her nose piercing is made of a special and rare diamond which is said to sparkle so brightly that it is  seen even from the sea. We checked into the hotel and had a night's sleep.

A view of sunset and moonrise at Kanyakumari

Day 3 - Our hotel was very near to all the tourist places like Kanyakumari Amman temple, the southern most land of India, Vivekananda Rock Memorial Ferry boarding point etc. So we went for a sunrise view, morning bath in the ocean and came back to the hotel for fresh up. Without any break, we quickly went to the adjacent town of Nagarcoil for seeing the Nagaraja temple. In this temple Lord Nagaraja (a snake) is worshipped in its full nest. It is said that the nest's clay changes its color every 6 months alternatively white and black. The snake nest clay is given to the devotees as "Prasada". Immediately we came back to Kanyakumari and went to the ferry ride to the Vivekananda Rock memorial which is built on huge rock in the sea.

A view of Vivekananda Rock memorial

This can be treated as the southern most tip of India as well. There were large queues to on-board and off-board the ferry which is something we should get used to when you are in India. The ferries to Thiruvalluvar statue were suspended as there is an bridge construction work in progress. 

We came back to the main land, had lunch and started our 3 hour journey to Thiruchendur. This was the 6th Lord Subramanya site (out of 6) that we could not visit earlier in Tamilnadu trip(s). This temple is literally on the sea shore and you have to walk on the beach to go to this temple. The "darsan" was not too delayed because we took the paid queues. We also felt very satisfied to see peacocks on the walls of the temples where their stone sculptures are kept coincidentally. It was already 7 PM and we decided to reach Rameshwaram in the night whatever time it takes. We had dinner on the way and we reached our hotel by 1.30 AM in the night - tired & exhausted.😫

Peacock on a peacock

Day 4  - Rameshwaram is itself a 2 day trip if you go in a relaxed way. Just remember that cars cannot go within 0.5 km radius of the temple. So you should take local auto rickshaws if you are staying beyond that vicinity to visit the places around. We went to Agni Theertham first to take a holy dip in the sea water. We collected some sand from this shore as its been said that this sand needs to be taken to Kasi and merged with Ganga as part of a "complete spiritual trip" in India. After here, we went to the temple to bath in the 22 fresh water wells which are of historical and spiritual importance. Remember that Rameshwaram is also on the seashore with salt water all around. This place is tightly coupled with Ramayana, so all the places here are of significant importance with Lord Rama as the main figure. We contracted an external & dedicated personnel who pours water from all these wells on each one of us. It was so refreshing as people who used to bath near wells knows. We changed our wet clothes in dedicated area in the temple and went for darshan of Shri Ramanathaswamy and Parvatha Vardhini Amman. When we came out, it was lunch time. There are lot of tourist attractions around. We started with Dhanushkoti where the 2 seas of Indian ocean and Bay of Bengal meet.

It was surprising to see Indian ocean was on high tide and noisy while the Bay of Bengal on the other side is comparatively calm. Kids enjoyed this place and collected a lot of sea shells. This is the place where the Ram setu is said to start from. Its a 5 KM strip road from Rameshwaram to Dhanushkoti with 2 seas on both sides. All you hear is the sound of waves and abandoned structures of the Dhanushkoti old town. On the way back, we visited Kodanda Rama Temple where Lord Ram made Vibeeshana the future king of Lanka before going on war with Ravana. From here, we went to Gandhamadana hill and Hanuman temple on top of it. Then we went to see Rama theertham, Lakshmana Theertham and Seetha Theertham, all are small holy ponds created by respective people for their penance after the war. The Panchamukhi Hanuman temple is also near by these theerthams and its where you can also see floating stones used in Rama setu. We then went to Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's house to spend about 30-45min and get some inspiration from his life and achievements. Towards the end of the day, we came to know that there will not be much queues in the temple and had another darsan of Ramanathaswamy. So much for that day!

Day 5 - We had an early morning famous  "Spatika Lingam" darsan. This darshan of Ramanathaswamy is not available after 6 AM everyday. After breakfast, we started from Rameshwaram, visited Villondi Theertham where it is believed that Lord Rama has put an arrow in the middle of sea for getting fresh water out to quench the thirst of Sita. Its interesting how the water from the well is potable where as the water around the well is as salty as how the sea water can be. You will get the taste of both the waters at this place to experience the difference. We crossed the Pamban bridge to enter the main land again and visited the Navagraha temple, again believed to be established by Lord Rama.

Walkway in the sea to Navagraha temple

During high tide, these navagraha stones submerge into water. Next up is Vaarahi Amman temple followed by a long journey towards Madurai. When we reached Madurai in the evening, it being the Vijaya Dasami, the last day of Navaratri, we wanted to take a break and go to darshan of the Meenakshi Amman. The temple had extended its closure timings for the day and we had a satisfying "darsan". Coincidentally, Madurai is the common stop in this trip and previous trip. Next morning, we started our journey towards Isha Adiyogi center, Coimbatore. It was lunch time when we reached Coimbatore.

We reached Isha foundation in a pleasant atmosphere almost by evening. We spent some time around the Adiyogi statue and then it started raining quite heavily. Somehow we made it into the Isha Ashram and visited various places like Surya Kund, Linga Bhairavi, Dhyana Linga etc. They are all specially consecrated meditation spaces by Sadguru and some how I got a feeling that they are all believers of Naga due to the asthetics around the ashram. By midnight, we reached Guruvayoor for a short sleep.

Nelluvaya Sri Dhanvantari Temple

Day 6 - We were informed that early morning Darshan of Guruvayoor Shri Krishna should not take time. We went around 6.30 AM, however we were kept waiting in the queue for 6 hours due to some special puja on Dwadasi day. We suddenly felt that the whole journey was put a full stop at that point due to the long wait time in the queue, at the same place. We were already sleep deprived and had absolutely went empty stomach into the queue. There were aged people in the queues, kids became cranky and it was a mess. The whole queue management and darshan mechanism should really be reviewed at this temple by the management. Having said that, all the frustration disappeared after looking at that beautiful Krishna inside the sanctum. Sandalwood paste put on Krishna's body is given as "prasadam"  here. After a late lunch and hurried checkout, we went to Nelluvaya which is just few kilometers away from Guruvayoor. It is famous for the temple of Lord Dhanvanthari who is an avatar of Vishnu during Ksheera Sagara Madhanam and considered lord of Ayurveda and all other medicine systems. This temple is also built in Dravidian Kerala Chera style architecture. Here you will be given "Mukkadu theertham" as "prasadam".
This is also an Ayurvedic composition good for stomach ailments and overall health. By late evening, we reached Thirussur to visit Vadakkunathan and Bhagavathy temples which are so pleasant. Our night stay was at an hotel near the Kochi International airport and we reached there by 10 PM after our dinner.

Sri Adi Shankara Sthupam

Day 7 - We had some buffer time in the morning before we catch our return flight. Also, we planned to return from Kochi so that we can visit the Kalady town, which is the home of Sri Aadisankaracharya. We first went to the Kanakadhara Mahalakshmi Temple where young Adi Shankaracharya did recite Kanakadhara Sthothram. This temple is few Kilometers away from Kalady. After having a peaceful darshan in the morning, we travelled back to Kalady.
There is a big tower called the Shankaracharya Sthupam with multiple levels inside it. Each level depicts various happenings in the life of Sri Adi Shankaracharya in the form of paintings and statues, which was very interesting. With this, our trip came to an end as our taxi bid farewall to us and we boarded our return flight in the noon.

Overall, it was a satisfying trip as we visited different places belonging to nature, devotion, art and peace.

Sarve jana sukhino bhavanthu

Our Temple Tour of Tamilnadu, India

 Background 

 We are a family of 5 people (3 adults and 2 kids) planned to travel across Tamilnadu to visit multiple temples which are of great historical, architectural and religious importance. This is towards the end of year 2022, in the last 10 days of December. It is during this period, the cyclone season is over, the climate is not as hot as rest of the year and less peak period for working IT staff like me. This is primarily a temple/spiritual tour but there were minor exceptions. I will not provide much details about each temple as the information is already available in the internet. This is more of an informational post. So, post any questions in the comments. The planning was personally done by us after doing some level of research from family, friends and internet.

So, what places did we cover?  

• Madurai 
• Palani 
• Tiruppurakundram 
• Pazhamudiracholai 
• Srirangam 
• Samayapuram 
• Thanjavur 
• Kumbakonam 
• Thiruvaiyaru 
• Swamimalai 
• Thirukkadayur 
• Chidambaram 
• Tiruvannamalai 
• Mahabalipuram 
• Chennai 

In summary, this trip is all about 

• 1 aquarium 
• 1 giri pradakshin or girivalam or walk around holy hill (14 km) 
• 2 beaches 
• 3 world heritage sites 
• 3 (out of 5) pancha bhootha lingam temples 
• 4 (out of 6) holy Subramanya temples 
• 4 (out of 108) holy Vishnu/Perumal divyadesams/temples 
• 9 nava graha temples 
• 12 days ( 9 days dedicated to travel and visits) 
• 25 temple towns/cities 
• 57+ total temples 
• 1535 KM covered in car from Madurai till Chennai (the map below is not accurate representation)
• 116169 total steps on an average of 12907 per day 

Is there a map? 

Yes, see below. The red lines indicate train journey. Only the major temple towns are indicated in the blue lines.

Details 

 

First things first. You should remember that 99% of the temples in Tamilnadu have timings. They open early in the morning around 4 - 5 AM and close after 12 PM. They reopen after 4 PM and close at 8 PM. So, it's important to plan your day and trip accordingly. Secondly, there are good restaurant options for vegetarians but you might not find any good hotels in deeper places. Thirdly, majority of the famous temples of Tamilnadu are gigantic. You need to walk a lot after entering the temple premises to reach the main deity. And sadly, people don't give a sh** about queue etiquettes. This is especially true in this season as there are large crowds visiting these temples in the form of Ayyappa devotees or Melmaruvathur om Shakthi devotees. So try to take a "special darsan" which is a paid ticket darshan wherever possible to reduce the possibility of losing peace over people. Fourthly, beware of people voluntarily try to sell you or offer any type of services. Don't get fooled by them. 

 

Day 0-1, we started from Hyderabad towards Madurai by train. It's a 24 hour long journey and we reached Madurai post noon. We checked into a pre-booked hotel which is halfway between the Madurai railway station and the Madurai Meenakshi Amman temple. After getting refreshed, we walked to the magnificent Meenakshi Amman temple and went for a darshan of the deity that took around 1 hour. We then visited 2 other temples one of which is Nanmai tharuvar temple that is of local importance. The other temple is koodal alagar temple which is one of the 108 Lord Vishnu's divyadesams/holy shrines. We visited it almost at the closing time and finally we had dinner and dozed off.

 

Day 2, our pre booked taxi reported to us. This will be our transport for next 8 days of our trip. We woke up early and started our round trip journey to Palani from Madurai. It took about 2.5 hrs to reach Palani. The Dandayuthapani temple which is one of the 6 important Subramanya temples resides on a hill that doesn't have a road connectivity. You should reach to top of the temple either by using a ropeway or a winch train or by walk (steps). Considering the huge wait times of people going up the hill, we planned to take the rope way going up the hill and the winch train while coming down. Both the transport mechanisms were enjoyed by the children. While the rope way takes 3 minutes to go up and winch train takes about 7 minutes coming down, the wait times were 2 hours and 1 hour respectively, due to high volume of pilgrims. The darsan took around an hour. We started to Tiruppurakundram, which is near to Madurai, from Palani. This is yet another important Subramanya temple. It was a quick darsan here and we reached hotel after having dinner.  

 

Day 3 - We went for Meenakshi Amman temple darsan early in the morning to avoid rush. We then had 

breakfast, checked out of the hotel and started our journey to Pazhamudiracholai which is kind of on the way to Trichy/Srirangam. This is another holy shrine of Lord Subramanya and it resides on a hill with road connectivity amidst forest and great nature. The bottom of the hill also has a temple called Kallagar Kovil which is a Lord Vishnu (Perumal) temple. This is also part of 108 divyadesams (holy shrines) of Lord Vishnu. We reached Trichy / Srirangam by evening. We went to Samayapuram Mariamman temple in the evening, had a darsan and saw one of the biggest ceiling paintings ever made. Then, we went straight to visit Jambukeshwaram ( Jala lingam ) and Akhilandeswari temple. It was almost temple closing time so we could not see The Amman while we had a not so satisfying darshan of the Lord. We searched and went to Yatri niwas which is a decent and budget stay. A restaurant is also part of its campus and we had a good night sleep there. 

Day 4 - We woke up early morning and visited Jambukeswaram one more time for our own satisfaction. No crowds or people at 5 AM, we had a peaceful long darsan at the sanctum sanctorum. We then visited the Amman in the early hours with absolutely no people around and peace of mind. Next stop was Srirangam Ranganathaswamy temple. We had coffee and then entered the vast/humongous temple. It just spans acres of land and walking takes long time. Visit the Srirangantha Swamy, one of the divyadesams along with Garuda Alwar, the Chakrathalwar, the Thaayars etc. There are many other temples in the same temple campus which you should take time to visit. One of the important place you should visit is the Ramanuja Charya's temple. This is a place where the original (dead) body of Sri Ramanuja Charya is still kept intact using special compound mixtures and pastes. We came back to Yatri Niwas at almost noon after washing our feet in the holy Cavery river flowing near our accommodation. Since we started early, we took rest for a while, had lunch and then started our journey towards Thanjavur. We reached the Brihadeeswara Alayam, which is a World Heritage site, by dusk. What a magnificent construction. In my earlier posts about New York trip, I was surprised about how that city was built. But, this is the grand pa of that. One just needs to experience

the larger than life perfect structures. Unfortunately, they did not turn on all the lights when the sun set, so the temple was not visible in the lights. We moved forward to see "Bangaru(Golden) Kamakshi" temple. The original deity in the temple was made with a solid block of gold. To save it during the invasions/medieval period, it was brought from Kancheepuram to Thanjavur. The goddess is covered with a type of chemical paste which is very costly, so that, it will still be visible as a black statue instead of a golden statue. After visiting this temple, we reached Kumbakonam and took rest. Our stay was at Kumbakonam for next 3 days. On our way to Kumbakonam, we also visited Thittei Guru Sthanam temple, which is a famous temple for the Guru planet but not part of the actual navagraha (9 planet) temples.

Day 5 - We started early to visit Garbha Rakshambika Amman and Mullaivanathar Swamy in Thirukkarugavur. The importance of this place that couples who are wishing to get pregnant, women having pregnancy's related issues or any reproductive health ailments will pray to the goddess as mentioned in the "Sthala Puranam". Post this temple visit, we visited Swamy Malai - yet another holy abode of Lord Subramanya. The temple is on a small hill with very few steps to complete the darshan. Fortunately, we got opportunity to see the "Abishegam" of Lord Subramanya. We then forwarded our journey to Thiruvaiyaru. Here, there is a memorial built for the legendary composer, singer, writer Sri Thiyagaraja Swamy. One can see his "samadhi" and also the actual idols of Sri Seetha Rama Lakshmana and Hanuma as prayed by Thiyagaraja himself. We got the opportunity to meet the 7th generation of his descendants. The memorial has inscriptions of some of his famous krithis (songs) about Sri Rama. We spent sometime and moved towards Aiyarappar temple. The temple was closed as expected till 4 PM. However, they did not open it till 4.30 PM for some reason and we started our journey to Thingaloor. This is our first Navagraha temple dedicated to the Moon. Remember that all the Navagraha temples except the temple for Sun, are Lord Siva temples. Lord Shiva in the form of Linga and Amman are the main deities and the temple compound will have a temple for that planet as well. The only exception for this is the temple for Sun god, where the temple is dedicated for Lord Sun himself and the sanctum of this temple is surrounded by small shrines of the different planets in different directions. This depicts that we, for a long time, had knowledge that there are planets with sun as center. After Thingaloor, we visited Alangudi, which is a temple for the planet Jupiter. Finally, we reached Darasuram - a World Heritage site - a temple place for Lord Airavateswara. One of the oldest and magnificent temples, how did they construct such structures in that age? We reached hotel and halted our journey for the day.

Darasuram - Airavateswara Temple

Informational Image about Navagraha temples

Day 6 - We started early, visited the Maha maham tank of Kumbakonam, followed by Kailasanathar temple, Adi Kumbeswara Temple, Sarangapani Temple and Lord Someswara temple as these are all local to Kumbakonam.  Then, we continued to visit the other nava graha temples. First we went to Thirunageswaram, it has temple for the planet Rahu. Then we visited the Suryanar Kovil, the temple dedicated to the Sun god along with Usha and Chaya Devi. Moved forward to Kanjanur, for the temple dedicated to the planet Venus (Sukra). 

In the same town, there is also Uppliappan Perumal temple, one of the 108 divyadesams. Following this we went to Keezhaperumapallam for Ketu planet temple, Tiruvenkadu for "Budha" planet temple, Vaitheeswaran Koil for Kuja planet temple. Some of these temples may have more devotees because they might be performing special prayers/pujas for that planet depending on their astrological recommendations. By this time, we finished 8 of 9 Navagraha temples and it was almost evening. We then travelled towards Thirukkadayur for Amrithaghateswar and Abirami Amman temple. This temple if unique and we find many "Shastipoorthi"  functions happening here at the same time. It was fascinating, cute and lovely to see so many elderly couples performing Shastipoorthi and the temple is filled all over with such couples, their children, grand children etc. It was such a lovely moment just to be in this temple. Just thinking about it, we have spiritual places for every major occasions in one's life. There is a place called Thiruvarur, which we could not cover, where pregnant women just come here in their last trimisters just to have deliveries as this place is considered holy for giving birth or just getting born here is believed to give path for liberation. Similarly, we have Varanasi where people just go and settle so they can die there. Thirukkadayur for shastipoorthi, bheema ratha santhi & sahasra chandra darshan, places like Tirumala for marriages, places like Srisailam for Upanayanam, places like Thirukkarugavur for women's health issues, places like Navagraha temples for astrological solutions, places like Sabarimala for men trying make steps towards self knowledge and places like Tiruvannamalai, the place itself for attaining jnana - self-knowledge, the ultimate knowledge. Feel proud how our culture has evolved inter-twining the beliefs with nature & energy.

Chidambaram Nataraja Temple

 Day 7 - We started comparatively later in the morning and vacated our hotel.  First thing was to travel to Thirunallar where the temple for the planet/Lord Sani exists. It is part of Puducherry Union territory and you will need to take a permit to travel there in car. After having darshan here, we reached Chidambaram by evening. The temple is again a huge one. This temple is dedicated to Thillai Natarajar and Sivakama Sundari amman. There was huge rush and improper crowd management in the temple. We managed to have darshan of the Natarajar and enquired one of the priest about Akasa Linga, which is the "Nirakara Roopam" of the Lord siva and the Nataraja Swamy which is the "Saakara Roopam" of Lord Shiva. Everyday for few seconds, the Nirakara Roopam will be given Harathi in pradosham and understanding about the Nirakara roopam or the Aakasa lingam is the Chidambara rahasyam. We reached Tiruvannamalai in the night.

Day 8 - We had arrangements done for Abishekam to the Agni Lingam or the Arunachaleswara swamy and Unnamalayi Amman (Apitha Kuchamba Amman). After completing the darsan and abhishekam to the god and goddess at this huge temple, we had lunch and took rest. In the evening around 4 PM, we started Arunachala Giri Pradakshin, also called Giri valam. The hill itself is the manifestation of Lord Shiva and many saints still roam around in this area. I have personally seen people here who have left everything worldly and just living here on the roads in their quest for Jnana/ self - knowledge. This hill is called as a "secret kshetra" and it is believed that the Lord Shiva himself has manifested as Lord Dakshinamurthy, still resides in the hill. This is a 14 KM path around the hill with important temples to be visited on the path. More details here and here. We were exhausted when we finished the walk. Its always good to start at Indra Lingam and finish at Indra Lingam. Start in "Cold" times of the day and always keep yourself hydrated if you are planning to do Girivalam. It took about 6 hours for us to complete the walk. 

Arunachala Hill

Day 9 - We went to Ramana Ashram in the morning. The great Maharshi of recent times, we meditated in the hall thinking about his teachings. The Ashram itself has peace and tranquility. We had lunch and started our journey towards Mahabalipuram. Its a 2.5 hour journey. At Mahabalipuram, we visited the Sea shore temple which is a world heritage site. A 2000 year old place and there is one entrance ticket to visit all the different other monuments nearby like Cave temple, pancharathas, Krishna's butter ball, Arjuna's Penance rock, Draupadi's tank etc. Being a world heritage site, these temples and carvings carry a long history. Just amazing. We also visited the beach and spent sometime before starting our journey to Chennai.

Arjuna's Penance

Day 10, 11, 12 - We reached Chennai in the night and let go our taxi. We reached our relatives place and stayed there for next couple of days. We visited the VGP Marine Kingdom which is one of its kind aquarium in India. Then went to T.Nagar, one of the busiest market places of Chennai. Get anything you want at the best prices here. The next day we visited Lord Kapaleeswar temple and finally got ourselves wet in the famous Marina Beach. The last day, we concluded our journey taking train to get back home from Tambaram station.

We did miss few places like Tiruvarur, Lord Ganesh hill top temple in Trichy, Ashta Lakshmi Temple in Chennai etc. But overall, it was an incredible journey with lot of memories and blessings.

Sarve janaa sukhino bhavanthu