And we picked up its trail from Bangalore and went right up to Tirunelveli (One stop before Kanyakumari)
Bengaluru – Hosur – Krishnagiri – Dharmapuri - Salem - Namakkal - Karur - Dindigul - Madurai – Virudhunagar – Kovilpatti - Tirunelveli .
At Madurai, we took a detour to Rameswaram.
Touched its tip at Dhanushkoti and quickly returned back to base - barely 12
hours before a huge squall hit Dhanushkoti and destroyed a large number of
fishing boats moored on the shores. And it rained heavily for the next two
days.
7 days: 1700Kms : 23 temple hops : 100+
Shrines :
And we prayed for good health and
happiness, for everyone in Sobha Palladian and everyone we knew (for Saha Kutumba
kalyan)
And I would highly recommend this road
trip to anyone who loves to travel by road.
If you have a powerful SUV and love
driving, the NH 44 is a wonderful track to cruise with your speedometer needle
yanked all the way to the right-hand corner.
And the 13 Kms drive from Rameswaram to
Dhanushkoti is an amazing experience. You drive on a very thin strip of land
with the Bay of Bengal to your left and the Indian Ocean to your left. And some lonely stretches which are scary at
times.
And I would hate to have a flat tire here
and especially when the two oceans try to get pally and reach across this strip
of land to have a nice handshake!
And alternately, if you have a good car
with comfortable back seats and a reliable driver, then it is even better.
Listen to music, enjoy the passing landscape, check out the lush green vegetation,
the unending rows of banana plantations, the paddy fields as far as your eyes
can see, the dense sugarcane groves on both sides of the road! And all along
you continuously munch on multiple packs of Lays chips, dry fruits & peanuts,
chikkis, murukkus, Haldiram’s aaloo bhujia, temple prasadams of laddoos and
vadais bananas & guavavas (and sitafals too). And keep on sipping Coffee
from your Thermos or Nimboos & Sprite and Amul Lassi, apple juice and of
course Coconut water-on-the-go!!!
And all along this route there are plenty
of restaurants – A2B, Saravana Bhavans, Aryas, Sangeethas and local biriyani
joints. Some specialise in Nattu Kozhi Kari. Nattu Kozhi = locally bred (colored)
chicken (as different for the farm bred (white) ones: Similar to desi eggs - brown
variety vs farm eggs -pure white ones).
And of late a number of brightly lit
Punjabi dhabas have sprung up. And they look very authentic – with a huge
steaming handi on the coal stove and half a dozen charpai and wide benches laid
out in front. These operate only during the nights and serve out Pindi style
rajma chawal and butter chicken!!
The Temples!!
I have difficulty on how and where to
start. And I am not sure if I can capture and translate my experience in simple
words.
I visited 23 temples. Offered prayers and
performed archanais in more than 10 of them. And went to all the small shrines
built inside the main temple and all around the temple complex.
And interestingly (and somewhat annoyingly)
we were closely followed by a few bus loads of devotees on their way to Sabarimalai!
Like in Meenakshi Amman kovil, we bought
a 100-rupee ticket and stood in a half a mile-long queue. And that entire place
was swarmed by Ayyappan devotees. 200+ in front of us and another 150 behind.
And we were one of the only 4 families in the midst of a sea of black dhotis
and bare bodies.
And these simple folks do not have any
concept of a personal space. And they pushed, elbowed, and squeezed thru. And
they kept their hands on your shoulder, on your back and their tummy grazed
your behind. Not comfortable at all!
And there were 7-year olds to 70 plus.
Tall and thin, short and fat and all possible shapes and sizes all in between.
And a million shades & skin tones!!
From Caucasian creamy white to Dravidian
dark chocolate.
Yes! Very fair folks to golden wheatish complexion
to light brown to milk chocolate brown to chocolate brown to dark chocolate
brown to bitter chocolate to 80% cocoa solids dense dark!!
And they all wore a number of beads
around their necks, vibhuti generously applied on their forehead and on their
arms and body and a majority of them sporting week long beard.
And they were a very excited and animated
crowd, chanting bhajans, shouting slogans in praise of all the lords & Gods, loud talking, cracking jokes, making fun of the first timers and
generally having a good time.
And in their midst, we never felt the
fatigue and boredom of the two-hour long wait and the slow-moving Q before we
managed to see the main deity.
It was a wonderful experience and we
encountered them many times in other temples too, but not in such numbers.
And in each temple, I walked slowly, in
and around, closely observing the massive stone pillars, the intricate carvings
of gods and goddess. The Yalis (mythical creature half lion, half elephant and
half horse) and the various avatars of Vishnu overpowering their opponents. And devas killing asuras. And elephants
trampling demon heads. And the thousand other forms of gods, goddess and
horseman and soldiers etc etc.
And of course, I could not miss the larger
than life size statues of buxom apsaras gracefully emerging from those giant
stone pillars every few steps.
Sharp nose, almond eyes (fisheyes as in
meen-akshi), standing in various poses showing off their well-rounded figures.
And all of them have generously
proportionate physique, perfectly matched symmetric bosoms and ample hips that
brought up their rear.
I am sure those master stone masons loved
their jobs and their masterpieces equally!!
And it reminds me of a story.
During the renaissance period, there was
a young French painter who became very famous for his series of nude paintings.
At one party a young Duchess cornered him and insisted on knowing how he
managed to paint such lifelike portraits.
And he had replied, “My dear, I just keep
on and on painting until I feel like pinching her bottom”.
Most of the temples are huge &
massive in construction. Almost all are constructed using stone and granite.
The giant pillars of solid stones and the roof made of stone slabs placed over
stone beams that straddle the giant carved pillars. And some of these temples
had roof that were no less than 15 feet high and more. And giant wooden doors
with thick brass stubs. Most temples were
very clean and well maintained – thanks to generous funding from Jayalalitha
and efficient upkeep and management by TVS group.
The smallest temple had 2 gopurams and
many had 4 to 6 gouprams many as high as 150 feet and more. And all the four
sides of each gopuram is adorned with beautiful carved statues.
At Madurai Meenakshi, I could not detect
even one square foot of blank space through my camera zoom lens!
Truly awe inspiring and overwhelming to
see such colossal masterpieces. And many of them at such obscure small towns
and villages like Nanguneri and Srivilliputtur.
And I seriously wonder if the Taj Mahal
has been overrated as compared to these temples’ architectural splendor. The Agra Red Fort can somewhat match the scale
and complexity of construction, but it comes nowhere near when you take the
stone sculptures into consideration!
And on some evenings, I felt kind of
lost. There are literally hundreds and
hundreds of such wonderful temples littered all across South India. And most of
them were built during the 500 CE to 800 CE – the halcyon days of the Pandian,
Chola & Cheran dynasty!!
Many were destroyed and looted during the
repeated Moghul invasions. And despite all the damages & disfiguring of the
statues and idols, they all still retain their majestic splendor and stand gracefully
tall against at passage of time!
And I felt empty at other times.
Shamefully, I could not quickly recollect
the names of those mighty Pandian, Chola & Cheran Kings. Except Raj Raja
Cholan.
Sad.
I studied in Dehra Dun and did ISC (Indian School Certificate, Senior
Cambridge). And I learnt Physics, Chemistry, Maths, English Literature &
English Language for our board exams. And Hindi, we had to pass compulsorily.
So, all my history learning was up to 9 standard,
where I had to reluctantly cram up all the dates of battles and names of who
fought who.
And I can still call out names all
the Mogul rulers from Babur to Bahadurshah Zafar in correct sequence and the battle of Panipat. And some bits on Ashoka, Shivaji, Maharana Pratap & Guru Gobind Singh. But unfortunately I do not remember reading anything about even a
single South Indian King and his dynasty.
Sadly, our history textbooks focused
more on the last 500 years of Mogul and British Raj in India than the 1500
years earlier. The prosperous period when India contributed to 26% ++ of the
world trade. And our South Indian Kings
reached out to all the neighboring countries for trade & peacefully promoted our Hinduism and build huge temples
in Cambodia, Indonesia to name a few.
And one more thing I do not understand
and accept….
For centuries we, Bharatam or Bharath
varsh have been a peaceful and God loving and God-fearing society. We worked hard,
created enormous wealth and built huge temples everywhere in praise of our
various Gods and Goddess.
And we showered each of those God idols
with gold, jewels and precious stones and riches beyond measure. And our
forefathers were pious & devout followers of the Vedic texts and did
everything possible to please the gods.
Then why did our Gods did not come to our rescue and protect
us when we needed them most?
Our Gods sat in mute silence watching
Mahmud of Ghazni plunder the Somnath Temple and break the sacred jyotirlinga.
And they watched many emissaries of the
Delhi Moghul court ride out all across Bharat on a destruction spree & ransacking of all our temples.
And our Gods remained inactive when Malik
Kafur, a commander in Allaudin Khilji’s army, raided and ransacked and looted many
of the famous temples in the south.
Can anyone explain why our God Vishnu ran
out of an avatar at such crucial times??
And I am definitely going to question HIM
when I meet HIM upstairs!!
And for all the pious people amongst us, I
will list down all the temples in my next post – Temple Hopping on NH 44: Part
2!!
Krish..
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