History as one says is alluring for there is so much to read about, see and connect the dots but at the end of it, you still feel like a novice.
Built in the 11th and 12th century, the ornately carved Great Chola Living Temples are exquisite in architecture.
They are located around the towns of Tanjore and Kumbakonam and stand testimony to some traditional and exemplary work of Dravidian architecture.
Recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites, these temples are built around a syncretic equivalence towards Hinduism and boast of some amazing sculptures, frescoes and inscriptions.
The idea of a long long drive was being cooked up by the ladies of the house since the onset of 2021 and zeroing in on the destination of choice was becoming a bottleneck, partly attributable to the issues around Covid.
I meekly tried reconciling the incensed moods with the idea of a drive to Gangaikonda Cholapuram, a heritage and historical site which had been on my bucket list for long.
It somehow it caught my wife’s fancy, being a history buff and a big fan of the 5 part series of novels on the Chola Kings-Ponniyin Selvam which incidentally got made into a movie in 2 parts.
She prevailed on the poor kids in no time and we decided to drive down to The Great Chola Living Temples, located in and around the temple towns of Thanjavur and Kumbakonam.
Table of Contents
PART 1 : A visit to the Temples in TN
Plans were cast in iron within the next couple of hours and with a precondition that we should be away from the heat and humidity of Chennai for not less than 2 days and we should not be overdoing the temple stuff. Tough asks but with promises of balancing out the itinerary, did include the main temple at Chidambaram, Srirangam at Trichy and a couple of them around Kumbakonam as fillers apart from The Great Chola Living Temples. Quickly googled out a 4 town road trip starting with Chidambaram as the first halt.
- January 16th, 2021
Setting off on the drive
With a plan set to cover quite a bit on Day 1 and with temples being closed between 12 Noon to 4 across the state, proposed an early 5.30 AM start so that we could cover the 220 odd kms distance in around 5.30 hours with an hour’s stop for breakfast enroute. The start as usual got delayed by around an hour and after getting the tank filled up, hit the roads towards Tindivanam to get into Pondicherry.
The 99th Km Milestone brought us to Haritam for breakfast where thanks to the weekend crowds driving out of the city and choosing this as their pit-stop, we were treated to some pathetic levels of service and cold and insipid food.
Around 9 is when we restarted our drive towards Chidambaram via Tindivanam, Pondicherry and Cuddalore. The roads after Pondicherry were in pretty bad shape and broken at quite a few places coz of the recent rains. We finally pulled into our first pit stop at Chidambaram by around 11.30 in the morning.
Chidambaram
Our drive from Chennai finally brought us to the temple town of Chidambaram at around 11.30 AM. Home to the Thillai Natarajar Temple where Thillai represents the earlier name of the town of Chidambaram while Natarajar refers to Lord Shiva who appears as a Dancing God instead of the conventional Lingam. A silver statue of the Lord Shiva with his left leg raised in a dancing posture can be seen in the sanctum santorum.
Known to be one amongst the five holiest Shiva temples, each of which represent the five natural elements and also known as Panchabootha, Chidambaram represents Quintessence or Aether (region of the universe beyond the terrestrial sphere). While Water gets represented by the Jambukkeswara Temple in Thiruvanaikaval located on the outskirts of Trichy, the Kanchi Ekambareswara temple in Kanchipuram depicts earth. The Lord is manifested as Fire and Wind in the Arunachaleswara Temple of Thiruvannamalai and Kalahasti Nathar in the small town of Kalahasti respectively.
Built in the 10th Century when this town was the capital of the Chola Dynasty, this temple is one of the oldest surviving temple complexes. Spread over an area of 40 acres the temple has 4 main Gopurams or towers by way of which one can enter the temple complex and a total of 9 of them which connect the various courtyards. The 4 main towers comprise seven storeys and are colourful and visible from far.
Unique to this temple are the 108 carvings of the karanas (dance transitions) and these form part of a classical Indian dance known as Bharatnatyam.
The Pichavaram Dampener
Next on the cards was a plan of doing a boat ride down the Pichavaram Mangrove forest located around 15 kms from Chidambaram. These forests are the 2nd largest in India after the Sunderbans.
After driving all the way upto Pichavaram, we discovered that our plans would meet with a roadblock. On account of Pandemic regulations and to avoid large crowds, being a festive holiday, the place was closed for visitors.
Anyways, since we had some free time in our hands, we drove for some distance down the scenic route just to take in sights of the lovely countryside, set amidst lot of greenery with a small rivulet running parallel to the road and hit back base at Chidambaram for our lunch at a restaurant called Palagaram.
A misnomer for the title but it definitely would have rued its chances of staying operational if it had stuck to its true name.
Having said that, this place offered everything that you could conjure as food and did its reputation no harm in dishing out some decent fare.
We started our drive from Chidambaram towards the town of Gangaikonda Cholapuram, located around 45+ kms away and which took us about an hour. This was where we saw the first among the three Great Living Chola temples –The Arulmigu Peruvudaiyar temple more popularly known as The Brihadisvara Temple.
Gangaikonda Cholapuram
This city bears historical significance to the fact that King Rajendra Chola I, the son of the famed King Raja Raja Chola defeated the Pala kings who were holding fort near the Ganges river and named it thus – Gangaikonda Cholapuram or the City of the Conqueror of the Ganges river.
Legend has it that the Ganges water was carried in golden pots and the Cholaganga reservoir was consecrated with it.
This temple took almost 9 years to build and was completed in 1035 AD. This beautiful piece of Dravidian style of architecture earned its recognition from UNESCO as a World Heritage Site and has the largest phallic form of Lord Shiva in the form of a Shiva Lingam, almost 4 metres high and said be the largest in South India.
This city bears historical significance to the fact that King Rajendra Chola I, the son of the famed King Raja Raja Chola defeated the Pala kings who were holding fort near the Ganges river and named it thus – Gangaikonda Cholapuram or the City of the Conqueror of the Ganges river.
Legend has it that the Ganges water was carried in golden pots and the Cholaganga reservoir was consecrated with it.
This temple took almost 9 years to build and was completed in 1035 AD. This beautiful piece of Dravidian style of architecture earned its recognition from UNESCO as a World Heritage Site and has the largest phallic form of Lord Shiva in the form of a Shiva Lingam, almost 4 metres high and said be the largest in South India.
The Vimanan or the Temple Tower is 180 feet high and has 9 storeys and is around 10 feet smaller than the Thanjavur Temple which has 13 storeys. Its believed by Historians that the height of this temple was deliberately kept low in dimensions compared to the Thanjavur temple as a mark of respect King Rajendra wanted to show for his father Raja Raja Chola’s masterpiece in Tanjore.
There is a huge statue of Nandi the bull, completely sculpted in stone, located at the entrance of the temple.
The temple is designed in a uniquely symmetrical way with each storey looking like a square circle oblong piece of art. The design of each of these storeys keeps replicating but however in a shrinking fashion as one looks upwards, giving the temple a Parabolic look at the top.
The last leg of the drive for Day 1 was towards the temple town of Kumbakonam, located around 35 Kms away from Gangaikonda Cholapuram.
The Lower Anicut Dam
Winding our way across the Lower Anicut Dam, home to the Kolladam river, we had to cross some not so very good stretches where the roads were getting broadened and we finally reached our hotel Jai Darshini Palace at Kumbakonam by around 7.30 PM.
A 115 year old traditional hotel which still exists
Not wanting to miss out on the famed restaurants and messes around the town, got some food delivered thru Zomato from Shri Mangalambika Vilas Coffee Hotel, a 115 year old hotel located inside the precincts of a temple complex. Simple and yet tasty and delectable fare.
- January 17th, 2021
In search of the elusive filter coffee, set my sights on Mangalambika yet again and started the day a little early with a 5 Km walk through the busy throughfares of the town. Got to photograph some of the temples enroute like the Sarangapani Temple and the Kumbeswarar Temple before heading back to the hotel.
Early Morning Sightings of Temples
By 9 A.M we finished our check out formalities and headed for Sri Gowrikrishna restaurant for breakfast. A decent outlet for some good traditional South Indian fare.
Next on the cards was a 7-8 kms drive towards the outskirts of the city to a place called Thirunageswaram (where Lord Shiva was believed to have been worshipped by many serpents) and home to the famed Oppilliappan Temple and the Rahu Ketu temple located close to each other.
The Oppilliappan Temple
The Oppilliappan Temple believed to have been constructed by the medieval Chola dynasty in the 8th century AD with some bit of work done later by the Thanjavur Nayaks, is an ancient temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu and has an interesting legend to how its name got derived based on mythology.
The narrative around the idol is that the Lord Oppilliappan came disguised as an old man and requested a sage Markandeya for his daughter Bhoomidevi’s hand. Though the Lord was informed that the girl was too young to cook food and did not even know how to use salt in cooking, he refused to leave the place without marrying her and also agreed to accept whatever food was made sans salt and served.
The Lord thus got his name Uppiliappan (Uppu meaning salt in Tamil) and the uniqueness of this temple is that salt is not added in the prasadam prepared here.
It is also understood that the Lord never leaves the temple without his consort in tow.
He is believed to be the elder brother of Lord Venkateswara of Tirupati and in case one is not able to visit Tirupati for whatever reason, they can fulfil their vows by visiting this temple.
One also gets an opportunity to be blessed by the temple elephant by giving it some token money and fruits.
A little bit on the Rahu Ketu temple housing the 9 Planet Elements
We then headed to the shrine associated with the 9 planet elements, the Rahu Ketu temple. Built in the 10th century AD, this temple is another lovely piece of Chola architecture built by King Aditya Chola I. Lord Shiva is worshipped here as Naganathar and is represented by the Lingam. It is understood that Rahu was believed to have worshipped Lord Shiva to get relieved of a curse. This is probably one among the few temples where Rahu is depicted with a human face while in most temples, he is seen with a serpent face.
Our prayers offered, we drove on towards the town of Darasuram, home to the magnificent Airateswara Temple and the second in the series of The Great Chola Living temples.
Darasuram
The second in the trilogy of the UNESCO world heritage sites of The Great Chola Living temples was next on the cards and we commenced our 15 km drive from the Rahu Ketu temple.
The Airavateswara Stone Temple
The Airavateswara Stone Temple, a Hindu temple of Dravidian architecture was built in the 12th Century AD by King Raja Raja Chola II and though smaller compared to the other 2 temples in Gangaikonda Cholapuram and Tanjore, incorporates a unique chariot architecture and is home to lot of Vedic and Puranic deities.
The Wheels of the Chariot are supposed to depict Sun Dials. A storehouse of art and architecture, this temple, spread across a pretty vast area has some exquisite stone carvings and ornately carved steps which include singing steps in one stretch of the temple. These steps are unfortunately gated and closed to the public.
The Temple derives its name after Airavat, Lord Indra’s white elephant. Its believed that this elephant was cursed by a short-tempered Sage Durvasa for showing disrespect to him and which caused the spotless white elephant to lose its colour.
Legend further has it that Airavat was so upset that he prayed to Lord Shiva at this present temple location to regain his white colour. Upon hearing his prayers, the Lord asked the elephant to take a dip in the temple tank and surprisingly he regained his white colour and was freed from the sage’s curse. The water tank still stands here and pilgrims believe that taking a holy dip in its waters would cleanse them of their sins.
Intricate carvings, done on stone adorn the walls. All along the base of the temple, one gets to see stretches of reliefs which narrate the stories of the 63 Shaivite Saints who are also known as Nayanars.
Thanjavur or Tanjore
The last of the Great Chola Living temples, The Brihadeeswara Temple also known as The Big Temple was next on the cards and we commenced our 37 km drive from Darasuram towards Tanjore and reached there by around 2 PM through quite a long stretch of winding roads and traffic. It took us over an hour to reach there. After finishing our lunch at Hotel Arya Bhawan, we moved on towards the Big Temple complex.
The Brihadeeswara Temple
Dedicated to Lord Shiva and also recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, this temple was built by King Raja Raja Chola I in 1010 AD and is part of the Trilogy of the Great Living Chola Temples.
The ones at Gangaikonda Cholapuram and the Airateswara temple at Darasuram are the other two of these famed temples.
What is amazing about the architectures of these temples is that they have utilized axial and geometrical symmetry rules when being built. All the stones are of an interlocking kind and with no adhesive to bind them and what is interesting is that the temple was built grounds up without any foundation. It has stood the test of time for over 1000 years and has remained structurally intact inspite of 6 earthquakes.
It is believed that this temple which stands amidst a fortified complex was built in a period of 7 years.
Built entirely out of granite (and its said that 130,000 tonnes of it were used), the temple also houses a pretty large statue of Nandi (the sacred bull) carved out of a single stone.
The Palace Complex in Tanjore
We then moved on towards Tanjore Maratha Palace Complex located close by.
Built by the Thanjavur Nayaks after claiming ascendancy from the Pandyan kings in 1535 AD, this palace held fort inspite of the Britishers annexing most parts of the Tanjore Maratha kingdom in 1799.
The complex comprises of a Bell Tower, the Saraswati Mahal Library, the Darbar Hall and the Palace Museum which houses lot of old and valuable statues.
As one enters the palace gates into the complex, you get to see the Darbar Hall on the left side which served as a stage for various forms of performing arts. The hall has some stucco work done up and the ceilings open upto some nice murals. A staircase opening upto the first floor houses Rajah Serfoji’s costumes, Gold and Silver ware, wooden and ivory artefacts, earthenware, coins, armouries and various kinds of paintings.
Adjacent to the Darbar hall is a compound which houses lot of nice stone sculptures ranging from the 8th century AD to the 18th century AD.
There is a nice Arsenal Tower also within the Palace complex, 192 feet in height with 8 storeys. Originally constructed in 1645 with 2 floors by the Nayaks, the Marathas renovated it later to 8 floors and with the prime objective of housing armoury besides also serving as a watch tower.The Northwest side of this tower leads to a 7 storey rectangular shaped Bell Tower, primarily used by people to get an aerial view of the city right from the top. At the top of the tower was believed to be a huge clock with the figure of a monkey striking the clock every 1 hour.
We then headed for a quick bite at Krishna Bhawan located bang opposite the Big Temple and by 7.30 PM commenced our 60 km drive towards Trichy where we had planned to halt for the night. Nice roads connecting the 2 cities in the form of a 4 laned highway and it took us around an hour and a half.
Trichy
We reached Trichy around 9 in the night and headed straight for PLA Krishna Inn located opposite the Central Bus Stand where we had booked ourselves.
- January 18th, 2021
A sumptuous breakfast done at the hotel where we were staying, we started our 10 km drive towards Srirangam. Also known as Thiruvarangam, this river island has the Cauvery river running on one side and a distributary of the Kollidam river on the other side.
Srirangam
The Ranganathaswamy temple, built first by King Dharma Varma Chola and dedicated to Lord Ranganatha (Maha Vishnu) is one of the largest functioning Hindu temples in the world is spread over an area of 155 acres and has 81 shrines, 21 Towers and 39 Pavillions.
While the origins of the temple are believed to be from the 1st Century CE, this structure represents an accretion of constructional activity over centuries by different dynasties, plunder and destruction, rebuilding, Vimanams getting washed away by floods, theft of idols etc but even today looks magnificent and very well maintained.
This is one amongst the most illustrious Vaishnava Temples in South India and is rich in history. Built first by King Dharma Varma Chola, the vimanan of this temple got destroyed by floods and its believed that King Killivalavan rebuilt the temple complex.
Historians say that during Alauddin Khilji’s regime, his generals laid siege to the temple complex and escaped with lot of ornaments including the golden idol.
We headed back to town around 1 in the afternoon and went straight to Woodlands restaurant located inside Hotel Femina for a good South Indian lunch. Its been over 3 decades that their restaurant has remained operational and loved their consistency in taste maintained over years. Around 4 in the evening after checking out of our hotel we started our 6 hour long drive back to Chennai with a 45 minute break around 8 PM at Sri Ariyas near Tindivanam for dinner. The fatigue was telling but we managed to roll in the car by around 10.30 pm into our driveway. Good memories of a short but nice trip.
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