Quote:
Originally Posted by anekho  nice and detailed travelogue! Great inspiration for the rest of us.
Where did you spend the night?
cheers |
- IIRC it was Hotel Sindhu Park in Chittoor. A little into the town, we stopped at the restaurant attached to the hotel for dinner, when we decided to stay back for the night, I enquired at the reception to see if rooms were available... they were, and we checked in. [Non-AC = 450 per night, AC = 700 per night.]
Quote:
Originally Posted by akroy Hotstuff, another wonderful xinging pictorial. Although I have been to Tirupati and couple of times and passed Srikalahasti once, I didnt realize that the temple was so large. It is definitely worth one visit.
Looks like the 4 laning work on NH4 between Hoskote - Kolar and onto Palamner is in full swing. The road infront of Woody's is fully gone (including half of its sign board as well).
Keep them coming !!
Abhi |
- Thanks Abhi! Yes, the temple is quite big inside... but with the crowd and all the adhoc structures inside the complex, it feels congested. When I climbed up the adjacent hillock, I could make out the actual size of the complex.
About the route, in hind-sight, I would have preferred taking the longer but better route via Hosur road rather than the Kolar route. Since the road is better and average speed would have been higher, total time taken would have been similar or probably even less and I could have avoided the 4 laning mess.
(Blr > Hosur > Krishnagiri > Towards Chennai > Watch for the diversion towards left side which goes to Kuppam > Kuppam > Palamner > Chittoor > Tirupati > Srikalahasti.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by mjothi Your trend of putting the route in google map is still continuing. Great. Nice pics too. I liked the evening shot.
Happy Xing-ing.. |
- Thanks mjothi!
Quote:
Originally Posted by muralisk Great stuff there. Nice pictures and great narration to support the pictures. Awesome hotstuff. |
- Thanks Murali!
Quote:
Originally Posted by pypkmsrikanth Lovely travelogue, you could have possibly stayed back at Tirupathi may be try your luck with the Tirupathi temple on Sunday and come back on Sunday evening.
The Mulbagal Anjeneya temple is an old one as well but you need to get into the town for that.
Keep them coming |
- Yes, we could have probably done that... stayed back in TPT instead of Chittoor. But it was only after dinner in Chittoor that we decided to stay back. Anyways, there is always a next time
Made a mental note of your point; will definitely check out Mulbagal next time I drive that way.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rkg The temple was built much earlier than krishnadevaraya around 10-12th century. Srikalahasti temple - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
only the rajagopuram out side the temple comples was built by krishnadevarya. the main entarnce is next to rajagopuram.
Srikalahasti temple is much bigger and beautiful than tirumala temple ( architecture wise)
It resembles the shiva temple of Srirangam with huge corridors. |
- Unfortunately, with all the hoardings, the A/C ducting work and other modern additions to the temple complex, the original overall design is difficult to make out. But yes, the temple is much bigger than Tirumala.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NIP Nice pics and write up. I went to this temple couple of years ago...beautiful architecture and HUGE ! Thanks for sharing. |
- Thanks NIP!
Quote:
Originally Posted by raju2512 ???
The temple in Srirangam is a Vaishnavite (Sri Ranganathar) temple.
Sri Kalahasti is one of the Panchabootha kshetras (temples representing the 5 elements). This temple represents Vayu (wind) . There is a lamp inside the garbhagraha whose flame keeps fluttering while many other lamps around it are still) .
The other 4 temples are 1. Tiruvannamalai (agni/fire), 2. Chidambaram (sky / space), 3. Kanchipuram (prtihvi/earth), 4. Tiruvanaikoil (Trichy) (water). |
- There is a special Darshan for Rs.1000/- (They allow 5 people), which allows you to go very close to the Garbagriha.
Quote:
Originally Posted by akbaree I had planned a trip to Srikalahasti almost an year back and still not materialized. Thanks for sharing the pictures and they have again rekindled the desire to visit Srikalahasti. It is one of the Pancha Bhoot temples and Shiva is considered to be present in the form of air at Srikalahasti. |
- Thanks akbaree. Like @raju2512 mentioned, you can actually see the flickering oil lamps inside the Garbagriha, supposedly signifying the presence of the Vayulingam.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rageshgr Great dude! Great story. You must have enjoyed the weekend! And nice pictures.
I myself was planning a family (of 4) drive in my Santro Xing from Kalpakkam ( Near Mahabalipuram ) to Elagiri hills. But once we drove from Kalpakkam to Ernakulam (650 km) and we really had to work the car in the highways to eat the miles, esp with 5 passengers and luggage. The journey was not very comfortable and we had to change the brakes after the return trip . But well that was a long trip. You have inspired to take up the Elagiri drive. |
- Thanks rageshgr. Since 95% of the time it is just the two of us driving around, the Xing is adequately powered, but with 5 onboard, it could do better with some more power... But my main problem is with scraping the bottom on speedbreakers when fully loaded with 5 + luggage. Never had a problem with the brakes so far.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ASHISHPALLOD hey hotstuff,
Nce pics with narration.
Did you notice temple elephants?
Shrikalahasti is the place where i enjoyed first time full plate of rice with rassam and my journey of authentic south Indian food started.
Temple complex is much more complicated.
Those rahu ketu and narayan nagbali puja are performed only at kalahasti and trimbyakeshwar near nasik.
Rose flower garlands are so cheap there.
I had noticed couple of small cement factories on kalahasti renigunta road. |
Thanks Ashish. Nope, I did not see any elephants around... maybe they were not brought into the temple since it was quite crowded that day.
About the Rahu-Ketu pooja, as mentioned; the instructions for the pooja were given out in Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Hindi & English! probably due to the large number of pilgrims from other states. - which is explained by your comment that this pooja is performed mainly only in Kalahasti and Trimbyakeshwar.
After a long drive, nothing tastes better than a plate of hot rice, rasam, papad, a little pickle and a bowl of curds!
Yes, the cement factories are still there, big rusty maze like structures... missed taking a pic.
17th August 2009, 21:51
