MY RENDEZVOUS WITH THE HILL TEMPLES OF TAMILNADU

A sign of changing times.

When I was in veltech, I rarely had time to enjoy. I did not even have time to go out for pani puri. But that’s all a thing of the past right now. Ever since I joined SRM, life has been fun. SRM has made me see and feel the brighter side of life, that side of life where all the enjoyment, the fun and frolic come in. I’ve had more than enough time to concentrate on my cricket and my studies and still sneak in a couple of movies in between. Now that is what you call striking a balance. No wonder then that it is currently ranked India’s no. 1 private university.

What the hell, this post sounds more like an ad for SRM UNIVERSITY. :-D

Getting to the pint, as I was saying, the past few days have seen me hitting the road more than once. It was thamaraipakam last time round. This time, it was SHOLINGANALLUR, a town on the outskirts of tamilnadu (I think). This place is famous for its two hill temples, one built in honour of LORD NARASIMHAR and the other, for LORD HANUMAN.

We started off from our grandma’s place at around 7 in the morning by van. There were around 15 of us in all. It was a three hour journey with a breakfast break in between. We reached the place at around 10:15. There began our great ascent upwards. 1305 daunting steps in all. And as if that wasn’t enough, we had to deal with a hill full of intelligent monkeys. At 2 rs each, we were given mid sized bamboo sticks to protect us from the monkeys. The monkeys were particularly good at seizing eatables from people and the only advice we got when we began the ascent was to not show anything edible to the monkeys.

As the count of the steps kept increasing, a few in our group found it difficult to climb. The first 200-300 steps were rather steep. Eventually, I had to help my mom and aunt up the steps. Another fascinating thing was that these steps were carved right out of the hill. Very similar to the ones you see in TIRUPATI. Despite the occasional outbursts, the monkeys didn’t turn out to be a nuisance, if left alone that is. This problem solved, I found out another use for the bamboo sticks. They doubled up as excellent walking sticks. A few halts and lots of huffing and panting later, we reached the top of the hill. And there stood the temple in all its glory. It truly was a breathtaking sight. How they could build such a huge temple with so many steps during those days when there was no machinery still remains a fact to be admired.

After the darshan, we began our descent. The descent was quicker but my legs pained a lot as I descended those 1305 steps that took us to the top. At one point of time, my legs were shaking and believe me, I am not exaggerating. I had company as almost everyone had the same sensation.

Next stop was the LORD HANUMAN temple that stood atop the adjoining hill. After we got down, we had to walk a couple of yards to reach the foot of the hill atop which the temple stood. This was comparatively smaller, jus 406 steps!!! (omg!!!). it was déjà vu as we again began our ascent with the monkeys lining the sides of the steps. After climbing 1305 steps, 406 was a breeze. And within no time we had finished our darshan and were back in our van. The only problem was that while climbing up, we were asked to carry a single brick each. The bricks were being used for some construction work in the temple and the temple authorities had found a cost effective way to transport the bricks, jus ask the devotees to take one each and leave the bricks on top!!! Talk of cost cutting measures. :-D That proved to be the only obstacle in our otherwise smooth climb(believe me, it WAS hard work)

It was lunch time as we drove away from the temple. 30 mins later, we decided to leave, only to check our watch and realize that we were nearly an hour ahead of schedule. And then popped this stupid idea in someone’s head to go to TIRUTANI temple on the way. The reason I say stupid is because unlike the previous two temples, this was quite famous and as we found out later when we reached there, there was a huge queue extending till outside the main aalayam (tamil for “shrine”). We couldn’t really go in because if we did, we would have ended up returning the next day only, such was the magnanimity of the queue. The only worthwhile thing we did in tirutani though was to get blessed by the temple elephant, a young and rather playful adolescent (see pic).

By now we had crossed the scheduled time and now everyone was happy that we were gonna return home late. :-P a few hours of sleep and an hour of play later, we were back at our grandma’s place. By the time we reached our place, mom was too tired. She was up and about really early today morning and I realized she needed a break. So I took up the responsibility and so, there I was in the kitchen, serving up dosas for me, my mom and my dad. By the time we finished dinner, it had already turned eleven. Mom and dad were tired as hell and by the looks of it, I knew that they wouldn’t stay awake for even a few more minutes. But as always after a long trip, am fresh as ever. A nice warm shower did the trick and so, here I am, sketching down my blogpost at midnight in MS WORD. And the reason am doing it in MS WORD is because of a problem with my net connection. Anyways, will publish it asap.

and here are a few snaps i thought i should share.

Our first stop, periya malai, lord narasimhar temple. You san see how high atop the hill the temple stands.




A view of the sprawling land below. taken from halfway up the temple stairs.



second stop, chinna malai, lord hanuman temple.




Observe closely and you'll find a couple of monkeys perched on the temple's gopuram!!!



Another natural wonder. this temple pond stood atop a hill. as you can see the steps have been carved directly out of the hill. a breathtaking sight. we couldn't find out the source of water for the pond.

Got lots of photos but i guess it would be better off if you visit the temples in person. man made wonders tucked away in the glory of nature. these definitely are must visit places.

Anyways, this was my little rendezvous with a few exotic hill temples, right here in tamilnadu. For more such posts, keep coming back.

Until then,

ADIOS!!!!!!