Transcendental Tiruchirapalli

Trichy is a very important spiritual destination in Tamil Nadu.  Centre to many holy destinations, Trichy is an ideal stop-over to cover some ancient devotional destinations.  First of our destinations was Tiruvanaikaval which is a suburb of Trichy city.  It is situated on the northern banks of the Kaveri river adjacent to Srirangam island.  The famous Jambukeswarar temple is located here.

  

The temple's presiding deity is Lord Shiva (Jambukeswara) and the goddess is Sree Akilandeswari. It is revered as one of the Pancha-Bhoota Stalams (Water).  There is a fresh water spring underneath the Shiv Linga. It is one of the 275 Paadal Petra Sthalams, where all of the four most revered Nayanars (Saivite Saints) have sung glories of the deity in this temple. The temple was built by Kochenga Chola, one of the early Cholas and has inscriptions from the Chola period.  We spent close to an hour studying the intricacies of the temple.  The temple, though having extreme historic importance, could be maintained much better.  

  

Srirangam temple town is situated extremely close to Tiruvanaikaval.  The Sri Ranganathswamy temple at Srirangam was constructed in the Dravidian style of architecture.  The temple is counted as the first and foremost among the 108 Divya Desams dedicated to Lord Vishnu.  The River Kaveri and its tributary, Kollidam bound the temple town on either sides.  The temple has 7 prakarams and 21 gopurams.  

  

There are numerous deities of Lord Vishnu in the temple.  The vastness of the temple is inexplicable - the entire town of Srirangam was located inside the temple at a period of time.  Even today, there are a number of houses within the prakarams of the temple.  The shrine over the sanctum sanctorum is shaped like the symbol of Om and is plated with gold.  

  

The 236-feet Rajagopuram is the second tallest temple tower in Asia.  The 13-tiered Rajagopuram dominates the landscape for miles around and can be spotted from most peaks in and around Trichy.  One would need atleast 2 hours to visit all the deities in this temple through the normal queue.  However, for those who do not have time, there are the paid queues.  In the temple, it is advisable to be aware of touts.  The "Paramapada Vasal" in the temple is opened only once a year during Vaikunta Ekadasi when thousands of devotees pay their respects to Lord Ranganathaswamy and walk through the door praying for entry to heaven.  After circumambulating the inner prakarams of the temple, we moved through the outer prakarams to view the magnificent Rajagopuram.  

  

The next stop was at Samayapuram - situated on the Trichy Chennai highway.  The place boasts of the famous Mariyamman temple which is visited by thousands daily.  It is believed that the Goddess here has extreme powers over curing illness.  From there, we returned back to Trichy.  

After a good nap in the afternoon, we were up and ready for our last visit of the day - to the popular Rock Fort Ucchi Pillaiyar temple.  Situated in the heart of Trichy, the temple is best visited during dawn and dusk.  The temple is located on top of a mountain and can be reached by a flight of around 200 steps from the base.

  

The hill also houses the Thayumanaswamy temple - which lies at a lower altitude to the Ucchi Pillaiyar temple.  The peak provides breath taking views of the city below and must be a boon for photographers.  I got the opportunity to capture some lovely moments on my camera, as well.

  

Surely, these temples are must-visits - in case you travel to Trichy. 

Nagarjuna Konda

Nagarjuna Sagar dam is the world's largest masonry dam built across River Krishna in Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh.  A historical Buddhist town named Nagarjuna Konda, now an island, is located near Nagarjuna Sagar.  The site is located 150kms south east of Hyderabad.  Andhra Pradesh tourism arranges tours to Nagarjuna Sagar on weekends to cover sight seeing of the dam, museum at Nagarjuna Konda and Ethipothala falls located nearby.

I decided to take this trip on a saturday with my cousins and few friends.  The tour costs Rs 500 per person only for the travel.  Rs 120 is later collected later which includes payment for ferry service to reach Konda (Rs 90), entrance to the island and museum (Rs 10) and entrance to Ethipothala falls (Rs 10). The bus started at 7 30 am from Yatri Nivas in Secunderabad and took three and half hours to reach Nagarjuna Sagar.  

We were dropped at AP tourism's restaurant on the left side of the dam for lunch.  Meals was available for lunch (Rs 100).

You could also spend some time capturing the beautiful view of the dam from the restaurant.  A lawn with basic play facilities has been provided which will interest children.

We then boarded the bus which took us through the left side of the dam. The dam contains the Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir with a capacity of up to 11,472 cubic metres.  The dam is 490ft tall and 1.6 km long with 26 gates which are 42ft wide and 45ft tall.  The dam provides irrigation water to the districts of Nalgonda, Prakasam, Khammam and Guntur and electric power to the national grid.

The road over the dam is closed for vehicles and we had to do a detour across an alternate bridge constructed a few kilometres away from the dam.

We could see remains of an old bridge which seemed to have been broken due to reasons unknown.

We then crossed the canal on the south side of the dam from where water is diverted to the district of Nalgonda.

In about 20 mins, we reached the launch station from where ferries to Nagarjuna Konda start.

Some people were spending time on smaller boats (parisals) while we waited for the ferry.

The ferry had an upper and lower deck and could carry upto 300 passengers at a time.  The trip to Nagarjuna Konda took 45 mins, a distance of 14 kms.

We could see rock structures on either side of the reservoir. The excavated remains of the Buddhist civilization have been reconstructed in the island.

        

Nagarjuna Konda is one of the richest Buddhist sites in India.  It is named after Nagarjuna, a southern Indian master of Mahayana Buddhism who lived in 2nd century AD.  The site was once the location of many Buddhist universities and monasteries, attracting students from as far as China, Gandhara, Bengal and Sri Lanka.  The Buddhist archaeological sites there were submerged, and had to later be dug up and transferred to higher land on the hill, which had become an island.

         

We decided to check out the reconstructed monuments first.  First, we saw a megalith - which is a cist burial representing the method of disposal of the dead in pre-christian era.  It is marked on the ground by unworked boulders arranged in a circle.

The next monument that we saw was an ancient monastery - which evidently meant for Ceylon monks is interesting for its two Chaitya grihas juxtaposed to each other and enshrining a colossal image of Buddha and an Uddesika stupa respectively.  The moonstone decorated pillars of the central mandapa.

 

One of the viharas is a Bodhisri Chaitya - originally this chamber formed part of Chuladharmagiri Vihara.  The  floor slabs registered the gifts by a lay disciple Upasika Bodhisri hailing from Goa.  The other vihara is Chamatasri Chaitya Griha built by queen Chamatasri, sister of Vasishthi putra Chamtamula for the use of monks living in the adjoining Mahvina Seliya Vihara.  There was also an old temple - its entrance only about 4ft in height.

     

The maha stupa lay a little farther in the island with flags representing Mahayana Buddhism adorning the areas around the stupa.

The most interesting monument was the Aswamedha.  The founder of Ikshvaku dynasty performed the well known sacrifice of horse called Aswamedha.  This ritual was one among the very elaborate sacrifice prescribed to be performed, only by a king of unquestionable authority and who had the recognition of his neighbouring kings as their over lord.  The tank nearby was intended for the final purification bath and the structure in the shape of a tortoise (known as Kurmachiti) where part of the horse was sacrificed.

  

After visiting the monuments, we took a peak into the museum as well where ancient exhibits were arranged. Once done, we waited for the ferry which brought us back to the launch station.  

From the launch station, the bus transported us to Ethipothala falls which was around 20 kms away.  The falls over the mountains is visible from the park maintained by APTDC and a very inviting place to take profile photographs.

Children could play around in the park while we enjoy the beauty of the falls.  The bus left from there directly back to Hyderabad - again a trip for three and a half hours.  We were dropped at around 10 pm that capped off a pleasant trip and provided a peek into Buddhism of the past.

Sri Kalahasti

Another weekend and plans were set on Friday night alright!!!  My cousin and I were going to Sri Kalahasti temple in Chitoor district of Andhra Pradesh.  We started from home at 6 in the morning and reached Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus (CMBT) by 6 45.  Sri Kalahasti is located enroute Tirupati on the Chennai-Tada-Sri Kalahasti-Tirupati route.  So we could take buses that ply directly to Sri Kalahasti or buses that go to Tirupati on the NH45 route.

We got an SETC Ultra Deluxe that started to Tirupati at 7.  After buying the tickets which costed around Rs 100 per person, we settled down for a nap.  The bus travels on NH45 till Tada in Andhra Pradesh crossing Redhills and Gummudipoondi on the way.  NH45 is a part of the Golden Quadrilateral which connects Chennai to Kolkata.  The highway, as expected, provided for a smooth ride.  

From Tada, the bus takes a left, riding on the Sri Kalahasti Road.  Sri Kalahasti is located 46kms away from Tada.  The road was pretty good, however with quite a few speed breakers.

The Sri Kalahasteeswara temple is one of the most important ancient Shiva temples of South India.  The temple popularly called Dakshina Kailasam has three lofty gopurams which are remarkable for their architecture.

This temple was originally built during the Pallava period and current structures were built by Chola King Kulothunga Cholan I, II and III during the 11th Century.

The temple is one of the Panchabhoota sthalam - representing the five basic elements.  This is the Vayu sthalam representing air. The others are at Tiruvannamalai, Kanchipuram, Tiruvanaikaval and Chidambaram.

 
Many Tamil Saivite saints like Sambandar, Appar, Manikkavasagar, Sundaramurti have also visited this place.  The temple is situated on the banks of Swarnamukhi river and picturesque surrounding of hillocks.  The temple is maintained by the Andhra Pradesh government.

The temple can be entered through one of the three gopurams.  We moved into the premises through the Bala Gnanambika gopuram.  Before going in, we had to deposit our mobile phones and camera at the counter outside the temple. 

Once inside the temple, we followed the crowd to join the free darshan queue.  The queue started from outside the inner gopuram of the temple and moved through the temple premises before entering the room where the moolavar sat.  The queue took around an hour to take us near Lord Kalahasteeswara. 

On the path, we saw various types of Siva Lingams, statues of saints and other Gods & Goddesses.  The temple had sculptures filling the panels on columns.  Some sculptures were typical of Chola architecture. 

 






Lord Kalahasteeswara was in the form of a lingam and represented Vayu.  After offering our prayers to Lord Siva, we followed the queue to reach the Thayar sannadhi.  Thayar was called Gnana Prasunambika Devi and the room that housed her, also had a cradle with Lord Siva and Thayar together on it.  We offered our prayers here as well and moved to collect prasadam. 

We learnt that the outer walls and the gopurams were constructed in the period of Sri Veera Narasimharayar in 12th century.  The sculptures all around the temple were really admirable.  The temple is also reputed as a Rahu Kethu Kshetra.  We spent some time reading information about the temple displayed on boards around the temple.

After exiting the temple, we looked at exhibits in the shops nearby without the slightest intention of purchasing them.  We then had lunch at a roadside mess and proceeded towards the bus stand. 

We took the Chennai bound bus starting from Sri Kalahasti and reached CMBT by 4 30 in the evening.  At around 6, we reached home, distributed the prasadam to all and described our spiritual experience.