Trichy
- January 18th, 2021
A sumptuous breakfast done at the PLA Krishna Inn 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.
Randomly clicking around in admiration of the temple's architecture
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.