[Dhar's]

The traffic was menacing. Could be of the Onam rush, I consoled myself. 2 hours for a journey as short as 50kms became the new normal in National Highway. Less said about the city conditions, the better.

But why rant? I am in the traffic. I am the traffic.

Whatever… I just need to stretch my legs.

“Let’s hit the roads in our neighbouring state. They have proper highways”. Words from my cousin couldn’t have come at a better time. So that’s it. A highway drive.

After a lot of pondering, the best we came up was centred around Madurai. Either a Kollam - Madurai - Kodaikanal or Kollam - Madurai - Kanyakumari circuit. A short drive and we had three days at our disposal. Consensus was reached that we will decide on the circuit once we reach Madurai.

We managed to beat the morning rush hour with an early start and crossed over to Tamil Nadu through Shenkottai in the early hours of the day. Road conditions were smooth except for some craters near the border which could gobble up a mid-sized SUV. Seems like it’s no man’s land which, authorities either side is not bothered of.

Shenkottai was originally part of Travancore Kingdom. Later in 1956, parts of it were transferred to then Madras state. Some old buildings and arches still bear the emblem of Travancore. Discussions inside the car shifted from financial markets to kings and erstwhile kingdoms.


Weather on the other side of western ghats was exactly opposite. Clear blue skies and bright sun. Rainbow somewhere after Thenkasi.


Right place for a pitstop.

Conversations about the Royals circumvented the globe from Greeks to Romans to the era of Pallavas and Cholas. We took much pride in our ancient Kings and their valour. After much of chest thumping, we pulled over to Hari’s just before Madurai for a break.

We don’t know whether it was the bespoke double strong coffee or the much-needed loo break that knocked some sense into our brains. Because now we had a new destination and that was unanimously approved - The Brihadeeswara temple! - as we reckoned that a movie was to be released based on the mighty Chola King.

Caffeinated, tanks emptied, and new bearings loaded in maps, we headed towards Thanjavur. But only to be slowed down by traffic. Scores of vehicles, sedans, MPVs, SUVs all lowered, stanced and decorated with a particular flag moving towards we dunno where. Don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t any car show nor the cars lowered with modified suspensions. These were human lowered and skilfully done. Soon we managed to go past the epicentre with much relief. Our only remorse was that we couldn’t have one of those flags to adorn our car.

Talking about flag, the conversation inside the car swiftly changed to politics and before we know it, the air conditioning seemed to be insufficient. I attributed it to the subject rather than the outside temperature or a malfunction. But before it could turn ugly, Lord Ganesha beckoned us when one of us read the signboard for Pillayarpatti. My cousin was quick to point out that it’s a famous temple and suggested a visit which we all obliged.

Wait – when was this supposed to be a pilgrimage?

We made it right on time, hardly a few minutes before the Sanctum Santorum closed and managed a blessed darshan.


The tower of the temple.


Selfie time.

Although lazing after a decent meal, one can’t really miss the sight of a fort built on an enormous rock formation. It was only natural for us to explore it.

Thirumayam Fort.
Built in the seventeenth century and now maintained well by ASI. A bastion on top of it gives a 360 degree view of surroundings.


View from the fort


Another view


Fort built on rock. A part of the rock is carved to make a chamber in which houses a Sivling. Iron ladders are placed to climb into the chamber for visitors.


GOAT


Standing strong

We did not explore much other than the fort and later found out that there was more to it than the fort.


The temple on one side of the Fort.

A pitstop at Pudukottai for a grab of locally processed cashew nuts launched the discussion on how we (hailing from the cashew capital of the world) lost the industry hegemony. Soon, we were rolling through streets of Thanjavur on our visit to the Brihadeeswara temple a short while before sunset.

No superlatives would do justice to describe the temple. An architectural marvel and a structure so grand in scale that it captures ones attention from any corner of the city exuding grandeur and richness of a bygone era.


Entrance at blue hour

The Temple was initially constructed around a moat in the 11th century by the Chola dynasty reflecting their culture and style. Later in 16th century, it was fortified.

The complex consists of five main sections including one of the tallest tower in South India and the site is listed in UNESCO World Heritage as one of the largest Hindu Temples.


One of the idols.


Mandapam before the main shrine


Paintings on the ceiling of mandapam.


Connecting with God

We were so awestruck that we decided to return in the morning for another look.


Corner view


Seen from the pillared and covered verandah running throughout the perimeter of the temple complex.


Instagram


Reality


One for the album


Worship

Equally impressive was the stay at Hotel Sangam. An unexpected find and both boarding and the restaurant deserves a special mention.

Knowing that we were in Thanjavur, my cousin’s brother-in-law, a well-travelled gentleman, suggested Gangaikonda Cholapuram and Chidambaram. We obliged and it didn’t disappoint.

Gangaikonda Cholapuram.


A similar architecture of Brihadeeswara temple.


Admiring the architecture.


The scale of the structure is eveident.

Chidambaram.


One of the entrance towers of Thillai Nataraja temple

It’s a massive complex of marvelous stone carvings. Unfortunately, much of the complex is closed for visitors and is in bad shape.


Devotion

Since we couldn’t find a stay of choice in Chidambaram, we headed to Trichy after the temple visit.

Streets of Chidambaram.


Street vendor


Resting legs

Late night and no prior booking left us scouting for a place at Trichy. Luckily managed a decent stay in the outskirts of the city. Stay in Trichy called for a visit to Srirangam.


One of the mighty towers of Sri Ranganatha Temple.

A simple long drive on open highways thus turned to a temple run. Nothing short of an overdose of culture, ancient architecture, and spirituality, it was time to head back. Having satiated the urge for driving on the open highways, I handed over the wheels to my brother in the return leg. We were really impressed by the highways in Tamil Nadu.

The superb Trichy – Madurai highway saw us being humbled by every other car be it a Range Rover or an Alto.


It took a while for us to catch up with this 20+ year old Italian beauty.

Being a public holiday, Shenkottai, looked busy with tourists from other side of the mountains. However, we managed to reach our homes by sunset safely with a consensus on destination for the next trip – Mahabalipuram.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[Guru_Shikhar]

Thanks for sharing this lovely experience. Excellent photographs!!!

The Temple run theme is a good motive to have long road trips in our beautiful country. The addition is you can experience the real countrysides while on the run. This travelogue is definitely on the to do list of mine.

The Scorpio photo ( pit stop) is just amazing...

Thanks again.

Cheers

[rajeevsulu]

The road trips are a pleasure when roads are good. I drove to Dhimbam and Hasanur after a visit to Bannariamman temple and was amazed by the road quality near Hasanur. This is bang on the interstate border and in the reserve area. Real quality roads.

[sukhbirST]

Clouds can give the right background & timing for very good photographs, which you have brought out nicely in your trip . If I missed, what is the make of your camera ? Will wait till you add more towns/cities but still thanks for sharing.

[digitalnirvana]

Beautiful photos and a wonderfully penned travelogue! Your cheeky wit and humour shines through. Do post more!

[mah45]

A beautiful write-up along with awesome photos.

Thanjavur - Kumbakonam belt has so many temples that even after so many years we find a new one whenever we visit there.
And yes Gangai konda Cholapuram is such a marvel.
The Gopuram there is slightly shorter but wider and a bit more curvy than the one in Thanjavur.

I didn't know you could get to Pillayarpatti on the way to Thanjavur from Madurai until I read your travelogue.

How is the route between Tenkasi and Madurai btw, it used to be very narrow and full of small towns in the past, haven't had a chance to go there for many years now.

[Arun_S]

Beautiful Photos and a nice travelogue.

With respect to Gangaikonda Cholapuram, when i visited i was told, within the temple when it is hot outside it is cold inside, vice versa, when it is cold outside it is warm inside.
As i had gone early morning couldn't really feel the difference.

Since you had visited Srirangam, you could have visited Thiruvanaikaval, Jambukeswarar Temple as it is located pretty near to the Rangnathaswamy temple. Main deity is in water due to an underground stream, but it doesn't get submerged.

[Dhar's]

Originally Posted by Guru_Shikhar

Thanks for sharing this lovely experience. Excellent photographs!!!

The Temple run theme is a good motive to have long road trips in our beautiful country. The addition is you can experience the real countrysides while on the run. This travelogue is definitely on the to do list of mine.

The Scorpio photo ( pit stop) is just amazing...

Thanks again.

Cheers

Thank you.
This road trip was quite refreshing and enlightening for me.

Originally Posted by rajeevsulu

The road trips are a pleasure when roads are good. I drove to Dhimbam and Hasanur after a visit to Bannariamman temple and was amazed by the road quality near Hasanur. This is bang on the interstate border and in the reserve area. Real quality roads.

True that.
That road btw looks very inviting. Is that closed during the night?

Originally Posted by Arun_S

Beautiful Photos and a nice travelogue.

With respect to Gangaikonda Cholapuram, when i visited i was told, within the temple when it is hot outside it is cold inside, vice versa, when it is cold outside it is warm inside.
As i had gone early morning couldn't really feel the difference.

Since you had visited Srirangam, you could have visited Thiruvanaikaval, Jambukeswarar Temple as it is located pretty near to the Rangnathaswamy temple. Main deity is in water due to an underground stream, but it doesn't get submerged.

Thank you.
I went inside the main shrine during noon time. There was mad rush inside and it was warm and humid but not unbearable.

Thanks for the info about Jambukeswarar temple. We really had no idea and looks like it was a missed opportunity. Now that the elderly in the family wants to visit, will make it a point to touch that next time.

Originally Posted by mah45

A beautiful write-up along with awesome photos.

Thanjavur - Kumbakonam belt has so many temples that even after so many years we find a new one whenever we visit there.
And yes Gangai konda Cholapuram is such a marvel.
The Gopuram there is slightly shorter but wider and a bit more curvy than the one in Thanjavur.

I didn't know you could get to Pillayarpatti on the way to Thanjavur from Madurai until I read your travelogue.

How is the route between Tenkasi and Madurai btw, it used to be very narrow and full of small towns in the past, haven't had a chance to go there for many years now.

Thank you.

We are planing to do Kumbakonam and Mahabalipuram in the next trip. Hope we can connect things well.

We took Madurai - Melur - Tirupattur - Pudukottai route and deviated to Pillayarpatti from from Tirupattur.

Most of the Tenkasi - Madurai road is wider now except for the small town areas. Towns in this route are still congested.

Originally Posted by digitalnirvana

Beautiful photos and a wonderfully penned travelogue! Your cheeky wit and humour shines through. Do post more!

Thank you. Glad you liked it.

Originally Posted by sukhbirST

Clouds can give the right background & timing for very good photographs, which you have brought out nicely in your trip . If I missed, what is the make of your camera ? Will wait till you add more towns/cities but still thanks for sharing.

True. Clouds give a dramatic effect.
The photos were captured with iPhone and Nikon D850. Most of the Thirumayam Fort and Big Temple pics were captured with D850 while Gangaikonda pics were captured with iPhone as cameras were not allowed inside it.
Thank you for reading.

[rajeevsulu]

Yes. The roads are closed at night. (6pm-6am) All vehicles entering the area are issued tokens but no toll is being collected now.

[TN20CQ5187]

Amazing pictures. Excellent travelogue!
Do they really dont allow cameras into gangaikonda cholapuram ? A couple of years back my friend did a proper photoshoot in that place

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by mah45

I didn't know you could get to Pillayarpatti on the way to Thanjavur from Madurai until I read your travelogue.

It is not.

The default and bus route for Madurai-Thanjavur in the past was

Originally Posted by Dhar's

Madurai - Melur - Tirupattur - Pudukottai route and deviated to Pillayarpatti from from Tirupattur.

The scene has changed after the 4-laning of Madurai-Trichy and widening of Tirumayam-Sivagangai-Madurai.

The fastest is Madurai-Trichy-Thanjavur and second fastest is Madurai-Sivagangai bypass-Tirumayam bypass-Pudukottai-Thanjavur.

There is a road connecting Pillayarpatti and Kanadukathan that is off Pudukottai-Karaikudi NH210, so you don't have to retrace back to Tirupattur or go through Karaikudi to head towards Pudukottai from Pillayarpatti.

[swparth18]

Praveen Mohan had done a sensational video on the Thirumayam temple. You missed a lot of folklore and his stories related to it. Generally I watch his video just to pump up more enthusiasm!

Here is the Youtube video :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ7w4XMFs9g

I was also at Brihadeeshvara temple post Deepavali. It is magnanimous! We went there pretty early morning. Despite this, there was pretty good crowd. Could not stop comparing Architectural marvels of Chola and Hoysalas temples. Such different outlooks and craftmanship within 500 kms and a century apart. I did the Great Living Chola temples ( for the architectural beauty). Rest was some of the divya desam temples of Chidambaram, SriRangam and kumbakkom.

Also the pictures makes me realize I should also take up camera and some photography lesson, especially city and countryside related scenes. Mobile camera does not justice to the views and scene I experienced.

[Dhar's]

Originally Posted by rajeevsulu

Yes. The roads are closed at night. (6pm-6am) All vehicles entering the area are issued tokens but no toll is being collected now.

Thanks for the info. Would love to drive on this route someday.
But the bucket list is only growing bigger

Originally Posted by TN20CQ5187

Amazing pictures. Excellent travelogue!
Do they really dont allow cameras into gangaikonda cholapuram ? A couple of years back my friend did a proper photoshoot in that place

Thank you.

There is a board that says cameras not allowed at the entrance. Hence I didn't carry my camera inside. Not worth a confrontation.
But I saw a couple of guys with SLRs (probably a wedding shoot) inside. I am not sure whether any kind of permission was taken.

Originally Posted by narayans80

It is not.

The default and bus route for Madurai-Thanjavur in the past was



The scene has changed after the 4-laning of Madurai-Trichy and widening of Tirumayam-Sivagangai-Madurai.

The fastest is Madurai-Trichy-Thanjavur and second fastest is Madurai-Sivagangai bypass-Tirumayam bypass-Pudukottai-Thanjavur.

There is a road connecting Pillayarpatti and Kanadukathan that is off Pudukottai-Karaikudi NH210, so you don't have to retrace back to Tirupattur or go through Karaikudi to head towards Pudukottai from Pillayarpatti.

Thank you for the info.
Although google maps suggested the Trichy route, we chose to drive through Pudukottai as we planned to return through Trichy and did not want to drive through same route. In a way it was a good decision as we could visit Pillayarpatti and Thirumayam which were totally unplanned.

While leaving Pillayarpatti, google maps did suggest another route (could be via Kanadukathan). But we declined that thinking Google maps was trying to misguide

Originally Posted by swparth18

Praveen Mohan had done a sensational video on the Thirumayam temple. You missed a lot of folklore and his stories related to it. Generally I watch his video just to pump up more enthusiasm!

Here is the Youtube video :

https://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=dZ7w4XMFs9g

I was also at Brihadeeshvara temple post Deepavali. It is magnanimous! We went there pretty early morning. Despite this, there was pretty good crowd. Could not stop comparing Architectural marvels of Chola and Hoysalas temples. Such different outlooks and craftmanship within 500 kms and a century apart. I did the Great Living Chola temples ( for the architectural beauty). Rest was some of the divya desam temples of Chidambaram, SriRangam and kumbakkom.

Also the pictures makes me realize I should also take up camera and some photography lesson, especially city and countryside related scenes. Mobile camera does not justice to the views and scene I experienced.

Thanks. Will watch the video. After this visit, history fascinates me although i hated it in school.

Indeed these are architectural marvels.

It doesn't matter whether its camera or mobile phone. Keep shooting. Just don't miss the moment.

[Garth]

Thanks for sharing a wonderful travelogue. Next set of places on my travel bucket list.