Visit to Temples near Vellore

We had an one day trip to Vellore from Bangalore. The road was excellent, but for the number of tolls to pay. On the trip to Vellore and back, we had to pay Rs 400/- as toll charges for the van. One can have a decent break fast near Krishnagiri at the Adyar Ananda Bhavan, which is on the high way itself.

First we had darshan at Virinchipuram Margabandeswara temple. You reach this temple just before you enter  Vellore   An ancient temple is a" must- visit".
Then we proceeded to Shenpakkam Vinayaka temple.The temple has no sculptured idols of Ganesha.There are in total eleven figures of Ganesha in a court yard open to sky. All the idols are not fully formed.

Then we went to Vellore fort, where the temple of Jalakandeswara is located. The fort itself is very impressive with its moat and massive walls.The temple has a beautiful mandapam with a stage ( perhaps  a hall for dancing recitals). The sculptures of this mandap is really awesome. There is a museum in side the fort, but unfortunately we could not see that, as it was closed. There is boating in the moat, which also we skipped.

Then we had our lunch break, at Arya bhavan. We then went to Rathinagiri murugan temple. As we parked our vehicle, the temple was closed( Quite common in most of the temples in south India). We had to satisfy ourselves with the darshan of the hill and the tower of the temple!                                                                             

From there we went to Sripuram Golden temple, which is about 10 kms towards Krishnagiri. This is only a show piece and it seems to be hyped out of proportion.The place is well maintained, but there are other places of worship also better than this. I have visited Swami Narayan temples (Ahmedabad, Delhi,), which I consider higher, in many aspects.Many ISKCON temples outscore this.It looks more like a week end outing place , since you have all facilities of food, drink, water,toilet facility with an USP of gold(?) cladded mandap and the working hours are from 8 AM to 8 PM. This place reminded me of many US museums where in you are let out through the gift shop.The other dis(turb)gusting feature of this complex  is the volunteers at the entrance, suggesting you to buy tickets for quick darshan. On the whole, this temple visit was quite disappointing, perhaps I was expecting something unique. 

Visit to Guruvayur

Though I have visited Guruvayurappan temple long ago, many things appealed to me when I had been there recently.There is lot of devotees to have darshan like any other famous south Indian temple.

First, the crowd was well regulated, also the crowd was well behaved(!). but the same crowd may be beating the queue in Tirupathi or Madurai. Secondly, no loud chanting of Slokas or songs inside the temple. Thirdly there were no beggars pestering the people waiting for darshan contrast to Tirumala, where lot of beggars with cut off limbs bother the people even inside the Vaikundam complex.

Another interesting thing is that there is no archana to the deity on individual name even in temples with no crowd. I saw this at Mammiyur Mahadev temple, Thiruparayar Ramar temple  and Thrissur Vadakkunathar temple. Also one can offer ghee lamp but not lighting it all over the place inside the temple. We get real ghee lamp , not like the hydrogenated oil lamps sold in many Tamilnadu temples. also there is no sales shouting for lighting the lamps.Last  but not the least impressive thing is prasadams are not sold like condiment shop, one has to pay and book for the limited prasadam. Another interesting point is that all sannadhis have the name of deity in Tamil also, which helped me in knowing the correct name.

More about the visit will follow

Interesting Analogy

Swami Paramarthananda Saraswati is giving lecture on "Jiva Yatra". This is a small text written by Swami Jnanananda Bharati of Sringeri Mutt.

Jiva Yatra means the journey of Jiva (atma).Here Swamiji gave an example, which was very interesting. A person, who had come to Bangalore, was waiting at a bus stop. Many buses came and went. He was just looking at them and not getting into any. Another passenger, who was also waiting for a bus, wanted to help him and asked him as to where he wanted to go.Then the new comer answered that he was not sure where to go in this city.

Then Swamiji commented that it was not to be laughed at, because the blocks, stages, phases and nagars of Bangalore would baffle anyone who was new at this place. Similar is the case of Jiva in this world. but luckily scriptures give the destination, he has to reach (i.e) Moksha. But who will give the directions for this? Luckily he has the help of GPS, which is none other than the Vedas. This GPS is controlled by the satellite, Bhagavan.This GPS takes the Jiva thru highway no. 1(Karma Yoga), to highway no.2(Bhakti / Upasana Yoga), to highway no 3(Jnana. Yoga)  to reach the destination (Moksha).

Bruhadeeswara temple, Thanjavur

The  Lingam (Lord Bruhadeeswara) -meaning the big Easwara has  a great statistics. It is the biggest single stone lingam in India measuring 23 feet on a base ( Avudai) having a perimeter of 54 feet. The tower above the lingam is about 200feet in height, which is a double walled construction. On the top of it sits an octoganal shikaram piece weighing about 81 tons. The whole of Thanjavur district is cauvery delta region with no hills nearby. It is really an engineering wonder that such a big temple with a huge stone lifted to 200 feet was constructed 1000 years ago. There is  a record saying that the stone was moved on an inclined plane whose base was located at a village (sarapallam) about 8kms away. Another interesting feature in this temple is that there are frescos of all dancing poses and mudras inside the walls of the tower. One has to get special permission to see this.

The temple is laid on a huge ground measuring approx 7.5 acres.There is a dias round the huge Nandi, in which 1000 dancers performed Bharata Natyam recently to commomerate the 1000 years of the temple. This should give the idea of the size of the temple. The temple stands within a fort with a dried moat.

Main Entrance

When we went to the temple, Mrs.Suganda helped us in having darshan without standing in the long queue( There were about 300 people). She got us the permission to see the frescos , but the officer-in-charge told that it would not be possible at that time ( 12 noon) because of hot sun. So we did not see the frescos. After having darshan of Bruhan Nayaki, we had the excellent lunch served by Mrs.Suganda and then proceeded to our next destination

Plan to visit the temples of Thanjavur

Having made a number of trips to visit the temples in Thanjavur area, I wish to share my experience. As the local people say- If you trip on stone and fall, your head will be at one temple and your leg will be in another temple , there a lot of temples in this area.There are 191 shiva temples , sung by the great four . and 42 Perumal temples (divya desam) . Besides these, there are a number of temples which are known for some miracles.
The positive side of this plentiness is that one can always visit some temple in the available time, travelling along any road in the area. But the main problem with most of  the temples is that they open only about 6 in the morning and close by noon after uchchikala pujai. The temples open by 4 or 4-30 P.M. So, one has to plan the afternoon carefullyto avoid travelling back to base, be it Kumbakonam, Tiruvarur or Thanjavur. Fortunately there are some temples that are open for longer period and there are some which are open through out the day.
To make the best use of the limited time of the temples, one has to plan the route and the temples to be visited. I shall tell about my recent tour in my next letter

Darasuram -Chola's Unique temple

Musical Steps

Darasuram Temple

Majestic Nandi

The temple at Darasuram, about 3 kms from the town of Kumbakonam, was built by Chola dynasty in 1150 A.D. We visited this unique temple on our trip to Kumbakonam. This is a world heritage monument under the control of Archaeological Survey of India.
This temple is one of the four temples built by Cholas,in which the tower above the sanctum sanatorium is taller than the entry tower( Raja Gopuram).  This tower will be of a pyramid shape. This is some what similar to the towers of north Indian temple. Perhaps  the chola king, after conquering north India, wanted to build temple differing from the regular dravidian style.The other three temples are at Gangai konda  cholapuram, Tribuvanam, and Thanjavur. Darasuram temple is the smallest one , but with lot of sculptures- photographer delight. Another unique thing is the musical steps,   These stone steps produce different swaras when struck . [The temples of Pandyas ( Madurai , tirunelveli districts) have musical pillars.] . This temple is a Must Visit for its uniqueness.

I am not writing the legendary story of the temple.

wonder of Thiruvidaimarthur

When we went to the Thiruvidaimarthur, we all know that it is a very big temple. After having the darshan of Mahalingeswar , we are doing the pradakshinam, we saw  the awesome sculpture of Ravan lifting the Kailas.Then a local man told that if go to the outer prakaram, there are two holes behind this . when we went there, the man asked us to keep the ear in the hole .We heard the veena music clearly. We are not able to understand the method how the music is produced. Definitely we had great temple builders who produce unique structures.
There are quite a number of special things in Thanjavur temples. Will continue in the next