Trip to Madurai and Kodai Part 2

We then went to Kurinji andavar temple which is a temple of lord Kartikeya who is the main deity in Kodaikanal.

The temple: It is said to be a sub-temple of Palani which is one of the six sacred abodes or Arupadaivedu of lord Kartikeya.

The handsome lord:

Image: Kurinjiandavar, Kodaikanal.

Lord Dandayutapani, Palani.

Our next target was to reach Berijam lake which is a high altitude lake located more than 20 kms from Kodaikanal:

For this we needed to get permission from the forest rangers which we got. The route to this lake was through dense forests, but I was stunned by the nature's beauty and bounty there. There was no question of any pollution or big crowd there, though there were some vehicles going towards the lake.

These are the sort of the places I am talking about, totally stress relieving and pure. See this ......

This is the view of the lake from one of the view points on the side of the road leading to the lake:





And then we reached the lake ........





Rest in the next post. Meanwhile do keep pinging in.

Trip to ancient Narasimha Temples.

It was an occasion of double happiness - Sri Narasimha Jayanti (birthday of lord Narasimha and my parents' wedding anniversary. Lord Narasimha is the lion incarnation of lord Vishnu who is the protector god amongst the hindu mythological trinity. We had planned to visit three rather less frequently visited temples of the lord.

These were those:

• Parikkal temple (Near Villupuram)
• Poovarasan kuppam temple (Near Cuddalore)
• Tavalai Kuppam (near Cuddalore)
  

All of these places are located in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

The temples are visited less because they are located in far off and not very much reachable places in rural Tamil Nadu. They can be only be reached comfortably by car.

We started our trip with Tavalaikuppam. We followed the Chennai-Mahabalipuram-Pondicherry-Cuddalore route to reach the place. But it was the most unfortunate that the temple was closed early because of a death nearby. And in India, it is a belief. We were also told by the locals that the temple will be open in the afternoon.

In the mean time, we planned to visit some other temples of the same lord located nearby. We then moved towards Poovarasankuppam around 20 kms away from Tavalaikuppam.

I don't remember the exact route but the locals there are very well adept with the locations. Here is the deity


This place is also called Ten Ahobilam or South Ahobilam. Ahobilam is a place in Andhra Pradesh which is located north of Tamil Nadu.

Our next stoppage was at Siruvandhaadu where in we visited the Lakshminarayana swami temple.


The temple priest told us that the temple was built during the Chola empire in th 16th century. So, a place of historical importance.

It was noon time and we had just started to feel hungry. We didn't find any decent eat out anywhere nearby. My uncle had gone to a good restaurant in Neyveli border, Archana. We had south Indian meals. Our next visit was to Parikkal and here is the lord who resides and presides there:


This completed the trip to lord Lakshmi Narasimha's abodes, with just the dissatisfaction of not being able to visit one, Tavalaikuppam. No worry.... will make an attempt next time....

Trip to Madurai and Kodai Part I

It was on the occasion of my uncle’s second son’s first birthday that we had planned to visit Madurai and also simultaneously visit Kodaikanal. Please go through this post and give your valuable comments.

Madurai:

Also called the city of temples, it is located in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is one of the major pilgrimage centres. The most famous amongst the temples is the goddess Meenakshi temple. There is also one St. Joseph’s church but we couldn’t find time to visit there. Nor could we visit Meenakshi temple because of some big festival held there.

I am giving details of the places we visited in this post. The first place we visited was the temple of lord Azhagar (also called Sundararaja Perumal temple or Kallazhagar temple). It is one of the 108 Divya desamsdivya desams is said to have been done by Ramanuja who is placed in the level just below lord Vishnu himself. or sacred shrines of Vishnu. The classification of

So, here are few snaps of the temple:

The Rajagopuram or the spire in the main gate.



A view of the temple complex:

You can find lots of Monkeys outside the temple complex.

Beware of these dangerous human predecessors. They can snatch away your belongings. They sit in trees as a clout.

Our next visit was to the Murugan or Kartikeya temple at Pazhamudircholai which is the sixth amongst the six sacred abodes of the lord which are also called Arupadaiveedu.

We then went to Vedanta Desikar temple.......

and then to Koodalazhagar temple

After this we went to Kodaikanal by road, the next day. The route we took was the Madurai-Vathlakkundu-Kodai Road-Kodaikanal. One normally pass through only one hill while climbing to a hill station due to which there is a constant increase in altitude. But while going to Kodaikanal, one passes through many hills. One needs to climb up and down a hill and then sevral such hills might make one feel giddy. So just be careful in this route.

Rest everything seems to be totally fine in this place - much less commercialized as compared to Ooty. You may not have much siteseeing to be done at Kodaikanal but can find much of the nature's beauty in and around the city.

Here you can find the places we visited and their snaps.

Kodai lake:








There have been occasions earlier when wild bulls have attacked the Kodai lake region from open unfenced jungles along the corner of the lake like these.


More snaps........





Rest will be posted in the coming posts. Please do keep visiting.