We started our journey in Mahabalipuram with the temples and stone carvings in granite by the Pallavas from the 8th century. These are not actually places of worship today but they definitely set the tone for the trip. They displayed established principles of building stone temples by the interlocking technique without plaster or adhesive. This technique of interlocking has stood the test of time for all the various stone temples which were built (and a lot of them rebuilt after Islamic invasions which looted and destroyed them) from 10th to 16th centuries in the state.
The 2004 Tsunami has exposed some more temples of the same era but the existing Shore temple and other monuments in Mahabalipuram now known as Mamallapuram, have been left intact. There are rock carvings (of mythological tales we have all grown up with, like Bhagwan Krishna carrying the Govardhan Parvat/mountain), which are beautiful, even though the detail has suffered damage from the wear and tear of centuries. The shapes, expressions, movement and grace in the statues and carved edifices is amazing.
Next stop we stayed at the Promenade in Puducherry and experienced the French influence in food, architecture and culture. The French left only in 1954 but there are still few thousand French nationals who opted to living in India. Thanks to the kindness of friends in high places, we managed to visit and meditate in the Matri Mandir at Auroville. Matri Mandir is a huge iconic structure which took 37 years to complete. Auroville itself is a township established in 1968 and has been built according to The Mother's vision and prides itself on its socialistic, inclusive and sustainable principles. For instance people pay money to build and stay in Auroville but it remains Auroville's property.
After an introductory video about Auroville, we were led to the shade of a large banyan tree where we were all asked to start our journey in silence. We then made our way in a staggered way to sit in silence around an artificial lotus pond at the bottom of the the Matri Mandir and then to the top where we meditated in the spherical building around a crystal ball which has mirrors focussing the sun rays on to it and down into the crystal ball in the centre of the Lotus pond. It was a beautiful experience. We also visited the Aurobindo Ashram and bought some books by Sri Aurobindo.
Sri Aurobindo was an ICS from Cambridge who was imprisoned by the British because of his revolutionary nationalistic journalism. He then became spiritually inclined and settled in Puducherry developing his yoga and meditation techniques. In 1926, he founded the Aurobindo Ashram with a French lady who was his spiritual collaborator, who is now simply known as The Mother, who ran the Ashram for him. Auroville was established by The Mother, eighteen years after Sri Aurobindo's death. We bought incense, candles etc from their shop which sells the products from small scale industries which flourish in Auroville.
As we drove out of Puducherry, the sprawling city of garbage heaps gave way to beautiful green paddy fields, tall swaying coconut trees and roads with heaps of paddy being loaded on to trucks or just waiting for the rice mill trucks. Chidambaram has a large lake and is the rice bowl of Tamil Nadu. We stayed for a night at a landlord's house which has been converted into a fine hotel which allows you to experience village life with modern facilities. Since its in the middle of nowhere they called up to check how many meals were required and proceeded to serve us a multiple course vegetarian meal on a banana leaf! It was the tastiest meal ever served lovingly, cooked fresh from fresh ingredients. The property is full of antique furniture, Thanjavur paintings, artefacts and the layout reminded me of our village earthen house in Bihar. One of the best things was that unlike the city hotels, the windows could be left open in the night with the net window shut in place to keep out insects and mosquitoes (yes they deserve their own place in the nuisance making cult). The property has a real lotus pond, an open air mini theatre and a conference hall/party hall apart form a horse carriage and charpoys sitting outside the sloped roof facade, to enhance the rustic decor.
Next morning we visited the Nataraj temple in Chidambaram. Being the first temple we visited, it has left a huge impression on us. There is huge stone gateway with 108 Bharat Natyam positions carved in it. The legend depicted in the statues is that Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati participated in a dance competition with Lord Vishnu as the judge. Lord Shiva won when he picked up his earring which had fallen to the ground with his foot and put it back on his ear. Since this kind of a position would not have been possible for a lady in view of modesty, Lord Shiva’s win did not seem fair and Goddess Parvati retreated to her abode, which is another temple dedicated to the angry form of the Goddess Shakti. (I have recently learnt that Mitochondrial DNA can only be inherited from the mother, mitochondria being the powerhouse of the cell, i.e Shakti)
Visiting the temples and listening to the legends and history made one appreciate the various dynasties which ruled South India. In my humble opinion, the artistic excellence, technological and engineering marvels reached towering heights (quite literally) under the Cholas. The patronage of the most talented people happened around the 10th century under Rajaraja Chola 1 and continued until the 13th century under his successors. I seem to have visited the places they impacted namely Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, before I actually saw what remains of the original splendor of their reign in Tamil Nadu, India.
Contrary to what we may believe, Islamic invaders destroyed and looted temples in the South too. The most notorious seems to be Malik Kafur, Ala Uddin Khilji's gay general who destroyed a lot of the temples which were rebuilt by the later Tamil dynasties and some additions were done by the Marathas namely the Nayaks who ruled Thanjavur. But the major rebuilding of a very high standard was done by the rulers of Vijaynagar Empire of Hampi in the 16th century namely Krishna Deva Raya and Acchyuta Deva Raya.
We also visited a dam on the river Kaveri, which was upgraded by the British in the 19th century and is still functional near Trichy. This dam was constructed by the Cholas in the 2nd century. The dates of the dam, temples etc have been corroborated through mentions in sources like Tamil literature from earlier centuries as well as written accounts of visitors apart from the numerous inscriptions still present in the temples as well as the Palm leaf manuscripts being deciphered.
The temples all have specific legends, stories, magnificent carvings but all have a black granite stone carved base of walls, pillars, gates, courtyards which is of a height of around 40 feet and the upper portion which makes the height of the temples or Gopurams between 100-200 feet in total, uses other material to sculpt more added detail to the stone carvings. All gopurams/gates and entrances have dwarpals (guards) which usually look menacing enough to create a fear quotient but interestingly Goddesses like Ma Parvati or Ma Lakshmi have female dwarpals and the Gods Lord Shiva, Lord Vishnu, Gods Ganesh and Karthik have male dwarpals. Its all very logical and organized,
The deities and stories from the scriptures are depicted in beautiful stone carvings all around the temple. There are life like statues of Meenakshi Sundareshwar wedding with Vishnu Bhagwan (Meenakshi/Parvati's brother) in attendance in the Meenakshi Temple of Madurai. The carvings and statues made me think that these must have had the impact which Page three today has on people. Celebrity weddings like this is probably what has made marriage popular in our culture. Till now it was a given that you had to get married, I wish it comes back into fashion after the Deepikas, Anoushkas and Alias popularize it like Meenakshi Sundareshwar temple did I am sure in that time.
Karthik Bhagwan is known as Murugan in South India and is very popular with many temples and festivals to his name. Apparently he is very handsome too. We lived with the bird known to be his vehicle, the peacock in the beautiful hilltop Taj Hotel in Madurai. Dozens of peacocks walk around the beautiful property which was originally developed by a British businessman in the 19th century. It boasts of huge trees, restaurant with a view of the city, open swimming pool and rooms spread out across the hill.
Coming back to the temples, the top of the temple or shikhara used to contain seeds. I read that seeds if kept in airtight conditions can survive for 10-12 years. Every 12 years the seeds would be removed for plantation. Even today temples are repaired and painted every 12 years (just as the Kumbh mela happens every 12 years near the Ganga river in the North). Hence the colorful exteriors of the top half of the Gopurams, mandalas on floors and ceilings have been redone over centuries every 12 years. All temples still have functioning goshalas/cow shelters, some of them have large granaries. All of them have stone carved pillared halls or manadapams for weddings, which still happen.
Thanks to our quiet, well mannered driver who made me a fan of Tamil film music listening to his Ilyaraja playlist on repeat, he would proactively show us an extra ancient temple or two on the way to the next town. We visited Gangaikondum Cholapuram temple which is a smaller version of the beautiful Brihadeeshwara temple in Thanjavur, where we took permission to take pictures of a young couple getting married in one of the mandapams. We also witnessed the Sandal and milk Abhishek of the 12 feet tall Lingam. Since Lord Shiva has the most temples dedicated to him and Abhishekams happen regularly, all temples have cow shelters.
The temples also have statues and shrines of the ancient scholars and sages like Patanjali. They were seats of learning as well as economic powerhouses as they encouraged agricultural practices (what with seed preservation, water management) and even today we saw evidence by way of lakes, dams, rice fields, Coconut and mango plantations. We have a lot to thank our ancestors for, as they created Bharat, which became known as the Sone ki chidiya or the Golden Bird.
Social media has had a lot to do with my decision to see the beauty and experience the power of the legendary temples of Tamil Nadu but it was also because of the very positive enriching experience I had had when I visited the Balaji temple at Tirupati. Having accompanied my religious mother to various temples in the north, Deoghar (now in Jharkhand)and Gaya being most chaotic, commercial and deflating; I was pleasantly surprised to see how organized, peaceful and energizing the experience in Tirupati was. Therefore I insisted on morning Darshan (viewing) in the temples as I hoped the crowds would be less and I would be able to experience the journey of entering the beautiful Gopurams to reach the inner sanctorum to be able to pray. One of the guides explained how the temple's layout is meant to ensure you treat it like your body, enter from the feet and make your way to the mind or the inner sanctorum. While you do that symbolically I guess you try to move away from identifying yourself as the body, walk with people from all walks of life and shed your ego and attachments to focus on the deity by the time you reach the inner sanctorum. No photography is allowed inside in the temples which makes sense but it means the best statues, carvings and architecture can sometimes not be showcased to the world, which is perhaps, just as well.
I was not disappointed, the morning Darshan in the beautiful Brihadeeshwara temple and Meenakshi temples were beautiful experiences complete with drums, mantras, rituals, palanquins, aartis. There were opportunities to pay more for speed darshans but it was all above board with counters, queues and receipts. The temple in Rameshwaram is most popular with the North Indians probably because the legend speaks of Lord Ram worshipping Lord Shiva to atone the sin of killing Ravana who was a Brahmin. Apparently Sita Ma made a Shivling from sand which is the main shrine in the temple. The priests too probably have been infiltrated with North Indians (sorry for being presumptuous) because it was a very commercial experience in terms of demands for dakshina.
The longest corridor of pillared hall makes for a great photo opportunity but there are not so many carvings or statues like the other temples.
The longest corridor of pillared hall makes for a great photo opportunity but there are not so many carvings or statues like the other temples.
Rameshwaram is a remote, underdeveloped town and for me its claim to fame is that Dr Abdul Kalam Azad came from Rameshwaram. We saw the Government school he attended and also went around his house which has his poems, books, awards and lots of photographs displayed. Such an inspiring soul, may our country be blessed with many like him.
There are many temples pertaining to Lord Ram, Sita, Lakshman and Hanuman due to its importance in the epic Ramayana. Visiting them makes you wonder whether the story is history or whether it is fiction, since his journey can be traced to real places, bridges, flora, fauna. There is a place near the sea where according to the legend, Lord Ram worshipped the Navgrah (the nine celestial beings impacting us on earth- Moon, mercury, Venus, Mars, Sun, Jupiter, Saturn and Rahu & Ketu) to calm the sea to be able to go out to Lanka to rescue his wife. Even today one has to visit during low tide in the morning, which is when the stones are revealed; placed exactly in the same geometrical setting we have all seen elliptical betel nuts being used to signify the nine celestial beings during worship in our homes. In the evenings the stones get covered by the sea in high tide. One is not sure how long those stones have been there, the barnacles are evidence they have been there for a significant amount of time.
We visited Dhanushkodi, the island from where Sri Lanka is a mere 16 km. A newly built stretch of road has meant the little sandy beach and the rocks surrounded by the sea has become a tourist hot spot with two teams offering photoshoots complete with printouts on the spot!
I sat on the rock and watched the waves and the fishes since nobody seemed interested in them. We offered to take family and group photos for those struggling with group and family selfies. I have been wondering what we used to do when we did not have smart phones...
Our last stop was a Vishnu temple, Sri Ranganatha Swamy temple in Tiruchirappalli, which has a huge reclining statue of Bhagwan Vishnu and apparently has been mentioned in the Ramayana. The statues and carvings in the pillared Mandapam is different with horses and horse riders, a sign of the times since this was a temple rebuilt after destruction by Muslim invaders in 16th and 17th centuries. There is also a set of statues depicting the Dasavataar - Fish, turtle, boar… etc
I found myself looking for Shiva's bull the Nandi when I realized this was not a Shiva temple like the others. We visited a very beautiful Shiva temple the Jambukeshwara temple too in Trichy, which signifies Shiva in water form (like the Nataraj temple is in form of space) out of the five elements. This temple had a beautiful 12 Zodiac signs carving on its ceiling. Apparently from the 2nd century. Unbelievable artistry!
I have been told I should have visited the Thiruvannamalai temple which according to legend is where Shiva in worshipped in the form of fire. Personally I hope to visit Hampi and Belur next. Hope I have inspired some of you to make this trip and see for yourselves evidence of our magnificent heritage in terms of development in Mathematics, Science, Economics, Art, Architecture, Music and dance.
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