The Temple Triangle - A Travelogue

It all started somewhere around the first week of July. I was planning for a big road trip in my new Xeta. Also it’s been quite sometime since I toured with my parents. We decided to explore places, mostly temples, around Chennai and short listed on the following places for the visit – Tiruvannamalai, Pondycherry, Mahabalipuram and Kancheepuram. I call this trip as The Temple Triangle. The reason was so simple - places in and around the triangle formed connecting Tiruvannamalai, Pondycherry and Kancheepuram are filled with just temples and temples everywhere.

Day 1: July 30^th, 2007
Time: 6 AM

One advantage of touring with your parents is that everything happens on time. All of us were ready exactly at 6 AM to start out trip. Our journey was towards Tiruvannamalai our first stop over before our final destination of the day - Pondycherry. We reached Tirunvannamalai at around 10 AM.

Tiruvannamalai is filled with spiritualism all over. It boasts of the all majestic Arunachaleshwara temple. We had a wonderful darshan of the almightly Shiva. Another common way of worship is a walk around the hill during a full moon night. History shows that during full moon day the population in this holy town swells to a staggering 25 lakhs sometimes. So plan your trip accordingly on those days. Since it was not a full moon day we managed to visit the temples quiet easily.
We also visited the Ashta-lingams (eight lingams) around the holy hill walk way. One interesting place of visit was this Idukku-Vinayagar temple. The mode of worship is to mange your way through a small gap available in a rock. I managed to do it. People there say that however fat you are, you still manage to sneak in this gap.
Apart from these there are lot ashrams in Tiruvannamalai – Ramana Maharishi ashram, Seshadri swamigal ashram and many more.

Place/Route/distance(kms)

Route comments/tips

Bangalore to Tiruvannamalai (200) Hosur – NH7 Krishnagiri – NH7 (92) Mattur - NH66 Uthangarai- NH66 Chengam- NH66 Tiruvannamalai – NH66 (110)

Upto Krishnagiri the roads are 4-laned, super fast and of the highest quality. From Krishnagiri, take the route towards Chennai and follow the directions to Pondycherry highway (NH-66). There is one good Reliance petrol bunk in this route. From Krishnagiri to Tiruvannamalai we lose the luxury of 4-laned roads but are still welcomed by the high quality roads with green trees and hills by the road side. Except the inter-city buses there is not much traffic. There are no good hotels or petrol bunks till Tiruvannamalai, hence plan accordingly.

Traveller Tip: Though we had our own food packed for the lunch, you can consider Hotel Auro Usha in Tiruvannamalai. It is just opposite to the Seshadri swamigal ashram

OK time now is around 2.30 PM and we are ready to drive to our next stop - Tirukovilur.

On our way to Tirukovilur we also visited Gnananda Thapovanam established by Swami Gnananda. Thapovanam is just 5 kms before Tirukovilur town. The place was very calmed, peaceful and a great place as a stress buster. To know more about this place you can check www.gnanananda.org
Tirukovilur is famous for the Ulagalanda Perumal temple. It’s a part of the 108 Divya Desam that Hinduism boasts of. Lord Vishnu has a unique pose in this temple. He has one leg on the earth and the other leg lifted up, supposedly on the sky, thus measuring this universe. The temple name in Tamil - Ulagalandha = Ulagam(World) + Alandha(Measure), which translates into “measuring the world” in English.

Place/Route/Distance(kms)	Route comments/tips
Tiruvannamalai to Tirukovilur (35) (State highways)	The route from Tiruvannamalai to Tirukovilur is straight forward. The roads are very wide, 2-laned, newly laid and of the highest quality. The time I went there were a few bridges being built. Those would have been completed by now.

The time now is 5.30 PM and ready to hit the roads to Pondycherry

We reached Pondycherry around 8 PM. We checked into Hotel MASS. It’s a 3-start hotel right in the heart of the city. A word of appreciation for the travel company, whose services I am using for the first time. We had good wholesome dinner and a good-night sleep readying ourselves for the local Pondy site seeing. From Tiruvannamalai, Pondycherry can be reached either through Gingee & Tindivanam or through Tirukovilur & Villupuram. I took the latter route as we wanted to visit Tirukovilur, thought the former route is the usual one taken through NH-66.

Place/Route/Distance(kms)	Route comments/tips
Tirukovilur to Pondy(77) · Villupuram(35) · Pondy NH-45A (42)	Tirukovilur to Villupuram has awesome roads by the country side. Roads are narrow but of good quality. Lush green fields on the side of the roads are a treat to eyes. I saw a new Reliance petrol bunk coming up on this route. Villupuram to Pondy has good roads, but heavy traffic. It took 2 hours for me to cover a distance of 42 kms.

Day 2: July 31^st, 2007
Time: 8 AM

We got ready by about 8 AM. We had a very good breakfast in our hotel. Today’s plan is to visit places in and around Pondy. Before going to our travelogue, I have to mention one thing about Pondy. This place is better organized than any of the major Indian cities I’ve been too. It’s clean, road traffic is organized, people are very helpful and I read about Pondy somewhere that it has almost a zero crime record. One very important piece of information – Petrol in Pondycherry is Rs.41/litre – A good Rs.10 less a litre than the rates in Bangalore and a good Rs.6 less than in TamilNadu. Pretty Impressive!!! Coming back to my trip, we started our day on an auspicious note.

Manakula Vinayagar temple.

This temple doesn’t have any historical importance, is not as huge as any other south Indian temples but still I liked it for the very reason that it’s clean and organized.

Our next stop was Auroville city. It’s an experimental city where people from over 30
countries reside. The experiments include innovative and inclusive education, renewable power source among lots of others. This city is the brainchild of the Aurobindo ashram in Pondy. It spans over 25 square km. Some trivia about Auroville includes the following: It’s shaped in the form of a galaxy. It has a banyan tree as its centre and an energy centre called Mantri Mandir near by.

After the Auroville visit, we retired to the hotel for a good one hour’s rest before our evening’s visit to the Aurobindo ashram.

Aurobindo ashram – silence everywhere. It has the Samadhi of Sri Aurobindo. People meditate sitting near his Samadhi. It has a library which has books on the life of Sri Aurobindo and his spiritual collaborator called affectionately as The Mother. It has volunteers serving to keep the ashram running. Must see place in Pondy.

The beach – was our next stop. Pondy beach was totally different from the beaches I’ve seen
before in that it has no sand at all. The waves crash directly into the beach road on the shore. But again, the beach was very neatly maintained. I saw a electric-non-polluting vehicle collecting the garbage. We also ended up watching the cine-shooting of a bollywood movie, which had Suniel Shetty in the lead. We also spotted some Pondy policemen with a funny red cap on their heads.

We retired to our hotel around 7 PM had a good dinner and ready for a nice sleep before our next stop tomorrow to Mahabalipuram.

Day 3: August 1^st, 2007
Time: 7 AM

Our destination today is Mahabalipuram. We could have taken the scenic East Coast Road (also know as ECR). By this way Mahabalipuram is just 95 kms away. But we decided to take the route NH-66 & NH-45 through Tindivanam since we decided to visit a few temples – Melmaruvathur, Madhuranthagam and Uthiramerur. Using this route, the distance is almost double at 170 kms approximately. Some information about this route in the following table:

Place/route/Distance(kms)

Route comments/tips

Pondy to Mahabalipuram (170) · Tindivanam - NH66 (37) · Melmaruvathur - NH45(32) · Madhurandhagam – NH45 (11) · Uthiramerur (20) · Chengalpet (35) · Thirukalukundram (20) · Mahabalipuram (12)

Pondy to Tindivanam was mostly city roads and heavy traffic heading towards Chennai. From Tindivanam, I was in for a surprise. We were welcomed by super fast, 4 laned NH-45. This road extends all the way till Chennai. From Madhurandhagam to Uthiramerur, you have to take a left diversion at a place called Karunkuzhi. From here, you are welcomed by beautiful trees on the road sides. The roads are narrow but still of good quality. You have to pass through Vedanthaangal to reach Uthiramerur. From Uthiramerur to Chengalpet you have to again join NH-45. From Chengalpet to Mahabalipuram are again narrow country side roads. You have to pass through Tirukalukundram to reach Mahabalipuram. The road quality is good enough.

Coming back to our travelogue again, our first stop was Melmaruvathur.

• Melmaruvathur has this Amman-temple by the side of NH-45. This temple is made famous by Bangaru Adigal. Every year lakhs of people, sporting red religious robes, walk to this temple from all over Tamil Nadu and even from other states.
• Madhurandhagam is famous for the Erikaatha Ramar temple. The legend goes as follows. During the British colonial times, the water level in the Maduranthagam reservoir (which incidentally supplies drinking water to Chennai) was in the verge of being breached. And the British governor of Chennai had supposedly prayed in this temple for the safety of the place. And the god obliged.
• Uthiramerur for me honestly was a surprise. I just so happened to travel via Uthiramerur to Mahabalipuram but never heard of anything there. The temple is Sundara Varadar temple. The architecture of the temple was something that I have never seen before. The main sannidhi is in 3 floors, one above the other and totally there are 5 principal deities for darshan. I don’t remember exactly the name of the gods in each of these sannidhis but as far as the temple is concerned simply amazing is the word.
  Traveller Tip: People wishing to goto Vedanthangal’s bird sanctuary have to take this route. On the way you will take a diversion of 4 kms to Vedanthaangal.
  

From here we started our journey towards Mahabalipuram. We checked into the hotel, a beach side resort, around 4 PM. I heard from the resort manager that the resort was completely ravaged during the Tsunami and was re-built.

Traveler Tip – Kancheepuram is just 27 kms from Uthiramerur and the route from Uthiramerur to Kancheepuram is filled with so many temples of historical importance. This is one route that we missed and would be useful for others who are subsequently visiting Kancheepuram. We also visited Kancheepuram during this trip but did not take this route.

Day 4: August 2^nd, 2007
Time: 8 AM

Our plan was straight and simple for the day. Visit Tirukalukundram temple in the morning and Mahabalipuram rock temples in the evening.

Tirukalukrundram is around 12 kms from Mahabalipuram on the Chengalpet route. It has a huge Shiva temple. The whole town has evolved around this temple. There is also a temple in the nearby hill, and according to popular legend, for centuries together every day at 12 PM some eagle visits and accepts the offering from the temple.

After the visit we left for the beach resort and took some rest before the evening visit to the rock temples. I am not going to say anything about the rock temples as already a lot of information is available in the World Wide Web about these temples.

One more incident that I encountered during this visit is the entrance into Mahabalipuram town itself. I was coming from Chengalpet and had to cross (note it was just cross not drive) East Coast Road (ECR) to enter into Mahabalipuram. And a toll of Rs.24 was collected as a toll for this crossing. And the worst part is, whatever route you take, we have to cross the ECR. I ended up paying Rs.96 overall.

We stayed in the resort that night and the next day fully was available for us to see Kancheepuram.

Day 5: August 3^rd, 2007
Time: 6.30 AM

From Mahabalipuram we reach Kancheepuram through Chengalpet - the same route that we took to reach Mahabalipuram from Uthiramerur. Kancheepuram is called as the land of 1000 temples and every word of that statement is true. We were welcomed by the majestic gopurams of the Vardharaja Perumal temple. This city has spiritualism in the air. Shops of flowers, silk sarees, spiritual items, hotels almost fill the entire city.

We parked our car right along the compounds of the beautiful Kanchi Kamakshi Amman temple. It was a Friday and apparently Fridays are the most crowded day for this temple. We managed to get in and out of the temple in about an hour.

Kanchi Kamakshi mutt was the next place we visited. The place was so spiritual. With the vedic chants in the background and some or the other puja happening continuously this place is a definite must for anyone and especially for the spiritually wanting.

Kailasanathar temple was the temple we visited next. The very architecture and grandeur of the temple struck me. Apparently it’s more than 1000 years old and still its beauty hasn’t diminished even a little bit. It has been included under the World Heritage Site and the Archeological Society of India. What pains me is to think that there were barely any visitors to this temple.

Kachabeeswarar temple was the next one. It’s big and historical again. In this temple, Lord Vishnu is shown worshipping Lord Siva in the form of turtle (kurmemerali).

Then we had a sumptuous lunch at Hotel Saravana Bhavan and checked into a hotel right next to it. The time was around 12.30 PM. The hotel rates are pretty reasonable. We paid Rs.660 for a 2 bedded room and an extra bed. We took some much needed rest. By evening we were ready again to visit the next group of temples.

Ulagalandaar temple was our first temple in our evening session where Lord Vishnu poses with one leg on the ground and one leg to the sky. This is the same pose that we saw in Tirukovilur.

Vaikunda Perumal temple is another vaishnavite temple built during the 7^th century. Again this temple is included under the World Heritage Site and the Archealogical Society of India and again no crowd whatsoever.

The majestic Ekambareeswarar temple was next in our agenda. The gopurams were huge. Ekambareshwara literally means one mango. Popular myth says that Parvathy, Shiva's consort, playfully closed his eyes bringing darkness to the entire world. Lord Shiva angrily cursed her to become black like Kali. The goddess however did penance here and made a lingam under a mango tree.

Traveller Tip: Most of the temples in Kancheepuram, or for that matter in Tamil Nadu would be closed between 12 PM and 4 PM. So plan accordingly.

Kanchipuram and silk saris – always a nice company! After ending our marathon spiritual quest my mom started her quest for artistically woven silk saris. Ask for the locally popular silk sari shops than the shops with big brand value. You can pick the saris for a good discount. She settled for 2 saris after a good one and a half hour. It was around 8 PM and time for dinner and good night sleep.

Place/route/Distance(kms)	Route comments/tips
Mahabalipuram to Kanchipuram(70) · Chengalpet(32) · Kanchipuram(35)	Go through the same route to Chengalpet that we used to reach Mahabalipuram. From Chengalpet, Kanchipuram is just 35 kms away and roads pretty good. But the roads were crowded.

Day 6: August 4^th, 2007
Time: 6.30 AM

Only one temple was missing out from the list of temples we needed to visit in Kancheepuram – the majestic Varadharaja Perumal temple. I don’t remember any popular legend that I heard in this temple, but I do still remember those majestic art work done on a single stone on the four mandapams in the temple.

This would become the last day of our trip. We skipped our journey to Chennai. Instead we started our journey back to Bangalore. The table below would give you the details of the route back to Bangalore.

Place/route/Distance(kms)	Route comments/tips
Kanchipuram to Bangalore(200 apprx) · Arcot · Vellore · Vaniyambadi · Krishnagiri · Hosur · Bangalore	Just join the Bangalore-Chennai expressway (NH-46) which is barely some 10kms from Kanchipuram. After that, all the way till Hosur, its uninterrupted, superfast, 4-laned, high quality roads. I did an average of 80 kmph with my XETA. I am sure it would be much higher in bigger vehicles. Ofcourse from Hosur to Bangalore you have to do away with the traffic situation.

All in all it was a very nice and relaxing journey. We planned this trip so that everyday we rest at least 2 hours of time in the hotel during the day time, so that we don’t feel the heat and tiredness and actually enjoy the places we need to see. The positives were

1. Roads – never interfered into our plans. It was monsoon time and I was expecting very bad roads, and hence kudos to the state and central government in giving an amazing road infrastructure.

2. Weather – very pleasant. Weather during summer is scorching in Tamil Nadu. This time of the year is pleasant for a trip.

3. Stay – Nice luxurious hotels of stay definitely played a role in having a relaxing and enjoyable trip.

That’s it. I am planning another trip soon to Belur and Halebid areas of Karnataka!!! Hope to come with a travelogue soon. Thanks a lot for reading and hope you got something out of this.