It all started off as a jolly group of “young” classmates from PSHSchool, Mylapore....about 70 years young to be precise..
Planning a temple trip to Kumbakonam and around...was Spearheaded by Muraliji, Who coordinated the entire trip..organising every detail from hotel bookings to the van travel. It started on a Friday night and ended on Monday morning.
17th March 2017, Friday
Ten of us gathered at Egmore station, Chennai on the night of 17th March 2017 to board Uzhvan express , leaving at 11:30pm. On the dot the train left with all of us in two different coaches and reached Kumbakonam around 7am, one hour behind schedule, on the morning of 18th. We reached Hotel Rayas in autorikshaws and checked into 4 rooms.
Murali, Raghu rajagopal and Arvind in one room
Sunadari ( Mrs Murali,) and Mrs Nalini Ravi ( Their daughter in law) in another room
Subbaroyan and his wife Vanaja in another room
Kamakshi ( my friend) , self and my husband Rangarajan in another room
18th March 2017, Saturday
Had coffee, tea , bathed and left in a Tavera to have a sumptuous Breakfast at Hotel Venkataramana and commenced our pilgrimage
Sarngapaani temple
Had good darshan of Komalavalli thayar and Aravamudhan thru Utharayanam entrance. This temple has two entrances, Utharayanam ( Mid Jan till Mid Jul) and Dakshinayanam ( Mid Jul till Mid Jan).
where the Moolavar idol is in a half lying pose as if he is ever ready to get up from His UthanaSayanam and help his devotee.
The above “Thiruvadhikoorruozhugai” is the hymns sung by the great Thirumangai azhwar and is on Aparyamrithan / Aravamudan and is arranged in the Chariot form as shown above.
Chakrapani Temple
Next stop at Chakrapani where the Lord is in the form of Chakrathalwar . There is a seperate sannidhi for his consort, Vijayavalli thayaar.
This temple also has Uthrayanam and Dakshinayanam entrances.
The temples have multiple steps to climb up and down for both perumal and thayar sannidhis.
From Sarngapani temple, we moved to Sri Ramaswamy temple.
Ramaswamy temple
Huge monoliths depicting the pattabisheka kolam of Rama and Sita in a single throne, Lakshmana holding Rama’s bow also to enable Rama to participate in the coronation. Barathan holding the fan (chamaram) and Chatrugnan holding the umbrella. Hanuman in sitting posture holding Veena in one hand and Ramayana book in other.
The Ramaswami temple has majestic huge figures standing idols ...all of them. Wow.. The temple praaharam is decorated with Ramayanam paintings on all the four praaharam.
The Adivarahar Temple
Here we have darshan of a small Adi varaha moorthy holding his consort Bhoomadevi on the left side with great love and affection .
The Adivarahar temple is smaller in size but nevertheless of great significance as He occupied this place first and as usual is the AdiVaraaha moorthy...the origin of all creation.
The Sarangapani , Chakraapani and the Ramaswmi temples are all with a km of each other .
Adikumbeswarar temple
Next visit is to the temple which is the reason for the name Kumbakonam....Kumbeshwarar , a huge temple premises
The AdiKumbeshwarar and Managalambika
a huge temple which has beautiful corridors and shops of olden days still intact.
Then we drove to Patteeswaram.
Patteeswaram
Pateeswaran.....swami Denupureeswarar. Gyananambikai ambal
Durga is the main deity...beautifully clad in a 9 yds. And is queen of all She Beholds.
This temple has plenty of pillars with beautifully carved sculptures, a few have been photographed.
Thirunallur
We reached Thirunallur temple around 12:30
kalyanasundaram ably supported by...Girisundari
It is also called Pancha varma lingam because the
Lingam changes colour every 2 1,/2 hrs.
We saw golden hue, and it is unbelievably true that The Swamy in Ling form changes colour. Are we witnessing evidences of an era of genius gone by???? Wherein temples have been architectured so beautifully with huge single stones or some with the sun streaming in at angles set so that the deities are lit up without artificial lighting???
Appar aka Thirunavukkarasar is believed to have had dharshan of the feet of Shiva here. It is called Thiruvadi deekshai.
Then we reached Kumbakonam to have lunch , rested for about an hour, refreshed with hot cups of coffee at hotel rayas and left for our afternoon / evening trip.
We travelled in a comfortable 14 seater tempo traveller from now on till we got dropped off at Kumbakonm station on 19th March night around 9 pm
The first temple in the afternoon was Thirukkannamangai
Thirukannamangai
Left at 3:30pm and reached Thirukkannamangai around 4:15pm but were informed that the temple would open only at 5.Hence we left without having the blessings of Abishekavalli sametha Sri Bakthavatsla perumaal.
Because of this disappointment at Thirukkannamangai, Murali compensated our loss by giving us a very pleasant surprise. He directed the driver to go straight to Thiruvarur of the chariot fame.
Thiruvarur
The huge temple tank at Thiruvarur Kamalalayam. The carnatic music trinity were born here .
Presiding deities --- Kamalmbal and Thyagarajan.
Huge temple, like it can accommodate an entire township in it., beautifully set in sprawling grounds,with many significant sannidhis, pillars that tell stories of a past yugam may be , the tank is huge and called Kamalalayam.
Ambal sits cross-legged very beautifully poised, very stylish but in a 9 yards that shows one how elegantly it can be worn.
Runalingeshwarar offers relief from diseases,debts.
The worship of Varuneswarar brings rains. There is in these corridors a
painting of Ranganathan lying pose and Thyagarajan coming out of his navel.
Vandarkuzhali or Bhuvaneshwari is another ambal.
There are hundreds of pillars here which according to a local lore says were left unfinished by Shiva's boothaganans.
Thirukkannapuram
From Thiruvarur we reached Thirukkannapuram, one more Sri Vaishnava Divyashetram.
Darshan of Kannapura nayika sametha Sowrirajaperumaal.
Vibishanan has a sannidhi here and every Amavasya Lord Sowriraja’s nadai azhagu is seen by Vibishana
The Lord assumed the name Sowrirajan,according to a lore …
The local king used to receive the Malai of Lord, daily in the night as prasadam. One night he saw hair in the malai and was angry and summoned the Archagar who informed the hair was from the Lord himself. King inspected the vigraham the next day only to find out the archagar was saying truth. ( Archagar prayed that night to Lord to save from the wrath of king and Lord obliged and hence the name Sowrirajan)
Sri Vanchiyam
SriVanchiyam temple was another delightful surprise.
Gupt ganga, auspicious in the tamil month of Karthigai, Gupta...meaning secret...is believed to come here in the temple tank....
Sannidi for Yaman, Chitraguptan
Yama holds righteousness and justice in both his hands.assisted by a sitting dwarf-like Chitraguptan.
Sri Vanchinathan and Mangalambika.
Then we reached Hotel Rayas to have dinner, sojurn after a days visit to various temples.
19th March,2017, Sunday
We had hot coffee around 5:30am at Rayas, had breakfast in a near by hotel and commenced this day’s temple visits around 8:30am in the 14 seater tempo trveller to have darshan from the temple at ThenThittai onwards
ThenThittai
The presiding deities here
Denupureeswarar
Vasishteshwarar
PanchaLingaeshwarar
Sugandhakundalambigai
Ulaganayagan
Mangalambika
Guru sthalam
Rasi mandapam
4 lingams in 4 corners, supposadly Protecting the main lingam.
Chandra kantha stone on top of the garbhagraha vimanam with a hole in the center.
Suryaganthi stone on the roof
Drops one drop of water every nazhigai ( 24 minutes) collected from the atmosphere on the lingam
The presiding deity is Denupureeshwrar and his consort is Sugandhakundalambigaai.Here the lord is called Pancha lingeswarar .There are guarding Lingaams on all 4 directions and the main one is inside.
Thirukkarugavoor
Thirukarugavoor...the famous worship deity for pregnant women -----
Garbarakshambigai.....
As there was a very heavy crowd at the ambal sannidhi being Sunday we could worship her Manaseekama only.
Papanaasam
106 lingams ( Rama and Sita) Plus Hanuman lingam plus Rama lingam, Parvathavardhini
Papanasam----as the name suggests , a visit to this sthalam absolves one of all sins.
Kapistalam
Ramaamani thayar sametha Gajendravaradan
Moolavar in Sayana thirukkolam
Then we headed to Kumbakonam to have lunch in a hotel very next to Sri Someswaraswamy temple. As everyone was exhausted, we did not go inside the temple.
Rest till 3:30
As usual had hot coffee at Rayas and we left for this afternoon temple visits.
Govindapuram.
Is a Mandapam constructed with the motive of encouraging meditation and Rama japam.
Each one of us started meditating for about half an hour . There is a well maintained library and rooms for devotees who want to spend more time here to meditate. They also have “Goshala” just outside across the road where good number of Cows/calfs are maintained.
Then we left for Thiruvidaimarudur which was close by.
Thiruvidaimarudtainur
Huge temple
Maintained by Thiruvaduthurai Adeenam
Mahalingeswarar
Brihathsundarakujambal
Anbirpiriyal
Thiruvidaimarudhoor is a huge temple where the Lingam is about half a kilometer away from the entrance but is made clearly visible with lights and lamps. Mahalingaswamy presides here and sundara kuchalambal is his consort.
From here we left for Thirubhuvanam . There was a large crowd at this temple as it was Sunday evening and nearing Ragukaalam. Hence we did not get down but proceeded to Thirucherai.
Thirucherai
Panchasaara kshetram
Saara Vimanam
Saara Pushkarini
Saara Vimanam
Saara Nayaki
Saara Nathan
Ninra thirukkolam
Sridevi, Boodevi, Neela devi, Mahalakshmi, Saaranayaki
There is a statue of Kaaveri inside the Garbhagriham. She is supposedly thanking Lord s HE has made her better than Ganges.
Nachiyar koil
Kal garudan
Aniruddan
Pradyumnan
Balaraman
Bramha
The at Kumbakonam had dinner, reached Rayas, packed our bags and reached Kumbakonam station to board Uzhavan express at 9:50pm . Kamakshi and Arvind in a coach and others in another coach . The train was late by about 5 minutes but reached Egmore on 20th , half an hour earlier at 4:05am on 20/3.
Raghu and Kamakshi got down in Mambalam while others alighted in Egmore.
Kamakshi , Me , Sundarai , Nalini , Vanaja , arvind-the accupuncutre guy, Murali, Rangarajan, Subbaroyan and RaghuRajagopal.
Our two day trip hectic though it was, always made easier by small breaks ….for lunch ,for coffee . Hence though the travellers were all above 60 years of age I must say no one felt very tired.
A short nap and coffee saw us all fresh and ready .
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