Authentic Bites, Boundless Yums
As mentioned before, I decided to celebrate my birthday in foreign this year, but I actually didn’t have any further plans. Also my bestie told me not to plan anything for my birthday, so I did so and I didn’t have any expectations. My only request was to visit the temple on that day, because I always do so, and Tamil New Year usually falls on my birthday too.
Ranganathaswamy Temple was one of the very few Vishnu temples, that we went to in Tamil Nadu. We actually only went to 3 Vishnu temples; Ranganathaswamy Temple in Srirangam, Azhagar Kovil in Madurai District and Venkateswara Temple in Thirumala (Thirupathi Temple). I only have some pictures of the first temple mentioned.
Ranganathaswamy is one of the most important Vishnu temples, and is located in the town Srirangam, in the district of Trichy/Thiruchirapalli, on an island in the Cauveri/Kaveri River. Trichy was the first town we stayed in during the road-trip in Tamil Nadu, and before going to Srirangam, we went to Uchipillaiyar Temple in Trichy and Jambukeshwarar Temple in Thiruvanaikaval (also on the island) – another post about the temple is coming soon.
Brihadishwarar Temple, named Rajarajeshwaram in it’s earlier days, is a temple dedicated to lord Shiva, built by the king Rajaraja Chola I and his sister, princess Kundavai, between year 1003-1010 AD is one of the greatest examples of Tamil architecture. It is built of granite, around 60,000 tons of granite is said to be used to built the temple. According to the insriptions, that are to be seen at present day, the engineer and architect behind the temple was Kunjara Mallan Raja Raja Perumthachan, a archari from that time, from Kerala. The interesting part is, that even the present successors of the achari still practice Vastu Sastra.
Pazhamudhircholai, one of 6 abodes of the tamil god Murugan, is located 25 km north of Madurai, and the temple of Murugan is located atop of the hill here, surrounded by beautiful forests. Unfortunately I got no pictures from this temple, as we were running out of charge for our camera. Hopefully I’ll visit this temple again 😉
We went to this temple after Trichy, and right before going to Azhagar Kovil, followed by Meenakshi Amman Kovil in Madurai.
The legend says this was the place where the tamil poet Avvaiyar was tested by Murugan, when he was a child. The well-known “Sudda Pazham Venduma, Sudaatha Pazham Venduma?” (do you want the roasted or unroasted fruit?) is from the conversation between these 2.
Lord Murugan of Pazhamudhircholai is praised in many tamil sangam literature, like Silapathikaram, Ettuthogai. This is also the only temple, where Lord Murugan stand with a single-faced posture, with both of his consents, Valli and Deivanai.
Talking about the Panchabootha Stalas, Thiruvannamalai is the place of the most important legend in Saivism. We were lucky to visit the temple at daytime, and had a lot of time to worship and do archanai, and to look around the temple. It is indeed one of the most beautiful temples I’ve visited so far. It’s known for its massive gopurams (temple towers), with a history going back to the 11th century, while the main temple is believed to be much older – more than 2000 years old, with mentions in Thevaaram and Thiruvasagam songs. Unfortunately, there’s not been done anything to protect the temple so far, but there is an appeal going on to UNESCO to make the temple a world heritage monument.
The town of Thiruvannamalai is located near the mountain with the same name, and with the temple at the mountain. This mountain plays a very important role in Saivism. It is also one of the 275 places that has been praised in Thevaaram and Thiruvasagam songs.