Temples of Tamil Nadu (2): Chennai to Thanjavur

Itinerary (1)

Rock cut Pallava temples

Different parts of Tamil Nadu have been ruled by different kings with their own culture and architectural styles. The Cholas were based in Thanjavur, and ruled from the 9th to the 13th century CE. The Pallavas developed Mahabalipuram and Kanchipuram and their temples from the 4th to the 9th century CE. And the Pandyas built the temples of Madurai, ruling in the state on and off from 3rd century BCE to the 14th century CE.

Because of all these different empires, the temples in different regions vary somewhat. And during our travels, we got a chance to explore and appreciate some of these different temple styles.


Day 1: Chennai

On our first day, we landed at Chennai airport from Delhi. We didn’t do much touristy stuff that day though. We just went saree shopping in the city and then drove to Mahabalipuram where we were staying for the next three nights.

Chennai airport felt quite old unlike the shinier airports of Bangalore and Delhi. We found our driver in the parking lot and then we were off. We drove to Ranganathan Street in T. Nagar area, in the older part of town. There were many huge saree showrooms there. We first walked into Kumaran which had about 3-4 football sized floors displaying all kinds of sarees. However, the people there did not seem very interested in selling - there was no salesmanship and we were quite underwhelmed. So we went to RMKV and Nallis after and bought a few sarees from there.

Tamil Nadu is saree heaven! Women in the state wear sarees regularly and the state is home to many regional weaves. There are many types of cottons, like Coimbatore cotton (or silk), Kovai Cora cotton, Chettinad cotton (also known as Kandaangi), Chinnalapatti cotton, Dindigul cotton, Thousand Butta cotton and Kanchi cotton. There are many varieties of silk sarees too like Kanchipuram silk, Konrad silk (temple design from Arni), Rasipuram silk (also known as Salem silk), Thirubuvanam silk (from Kumbakonam) and Thanjavur silk. There are also some other traditional styles like the Kodalikarrupur sarees which are very rare now. And Madurai has its very own Sungudi cotton weave.

I checked out a few of these types of sarees in the shops. And I am sure, there is a lot more to see than in my list. Still, it was such a pleasure to learn about them and try to figure out the differences. There are many shops to go to. The large retail chains like Nalli, Pothys, RMKV, Kanakavalli and Chennai silks are popular. For a more premium experience, one can go to exclusive stores like Sundari silks, Tulsi silks. Hayagrivas silks, Palam silks, Srinivasa silks and Rasi silks.

After the tiring saree shopping, our driver took us to a local eating place, Geetham and we were impressed. First of all, one had to specify whether they want to go to a veg or a non-veg restaurant before going there - that was important! But either way, the food was outstanding. The dosas were so tasty, the food cheap and the service extremely quick and efficient. We enjoyed the experience. And this became the norm going forward.

The weather in Chennai didn't feel as hot as I had expected, it was quite comfortable. The city felt relaxed and slow. There was a lot of greenery around. And like other typical Indian cities, metro construction was going on 😂. There were hundreds of temples, everywhere. I also noticed that nothing was written in Hindi anywhere, at all. It did feel weird in the beginning, but felt normal over the next few days. And the city was so disciplined! Everyone just drove calmly and properly, definitely a different experience after having just landed from Delhi. 

After the shopping, we drove towards Mahabalipuram, on the East Coast Road (ECR) which apparently runs all the way till Kanyakumari. There was construction all along the road, and we could not see the sea from there at all. Didn’t really feel like a coastal road 😂. The drive was quick and comfortable though, took us less than 2 hours.

Four Points

Our hotel - Four Points by Sheraton, Mahabalipuram - was lovely. It has small villas surrounded by trees everywhere. It had a huge pool and there were hammocks everywhere to relax. You could walk around within the huge hotel compound itself. The hotel was outside of town, in the midst of rural greenery. Everyday in the evening, there was a sea breeze which made the weather quite pleasant. As it was December, it was fully lighted up too. Overall it was very quiet and had a very relaxed resort-ey vibe to it.


Day 2: Kanchipuram

We did a day trip to Kanchipuram and was I impressed by all it had to offer! Kanchipuram was a city built by the Pallavas and was their capital from the 4th to the 9th century CE. It is known as the “City of a thousand temples”, though we got to see only three of them. And it's also famous for its stunning Kanjeevaram sarees, a true display of skill and art! The Kanchi Matha is also one of the seven sacred spots or sapta puri of Hinduism and a prestigious seat of Hindu learning. It just has so much history and culture to offer. We went to a few temples and did saree shopping. I wasn’t aware we could visit the Matha though, would have loved to go there too.

The drive from Mahabalipuram to Kanchipuram was through green areas, and took us about 2.5 hours. Kanchipuram town felt like a bustling place, after the calmness of Mahabalipuram outskirts. It felt like an old city with its narrow roads. But surprisingly, it didn't feel chaotic. While driving in the city, we passed by so many temples, I could now believe there were 1000+ temples in town. There were carved statues on the roads too. We also encountered loads of buses taking groups of pilgrims (mostly women) to temples. And many of these buses were quite colourful and loud. Seeing so many tourist buses with pilgrims was definitely a new sight for me.

Kailasanathar temple sculptures

We first went to the Kailasanathar temple, which is supposedly the oldest surviving temple from 7-8th century CE and not an active temple now. The architecture and sculptures there were quite rich, and there was a sense of quiet and calmness there. Inside the temple, there was a very narrow tunnel that one can choose to crawl through for attaining moksha. We didn’t walk through it though. We then drove to the next temple, and realised that temples in Tamil Nadu close in the afternoons! This one was closed from 1230 pm to 430 pm. That was a bit of a surprise for us as we had no clue!

As we had time now, we drove to A.S. Babu Sah, a shop someone had suggested we go to (and which was marketed all over town). When driving there, many people tried to divert us to some other shops too. At A.S. Babu, we had to leave our shoes outside before entering. And when we walked in, we were in for a shock!

It was an enormous wholesale shop with four floors, each selling a different type and range of sarees (though only from Kanchipuram). One floor for cottons, one for cotton-silk, one for silks less than Rs. 10,000 and the fourth floor for expensive silk sarees. Each floor had sales people who spoke multiple languages (hindi, english, tamil, telugu, kannada, malayalam, gujarati and more). And based on what language you spoke, a salesperson would approach you, put a bedsheet on the floor and then start showing you hundreds of sarees within your range. Till you get exhausted!

The number of designs they had were unlimited. All around, the shelves were stacked with sarees. It was also very loud and there was so much chaos all around. It was maddening. The processes were all streamlined though, working like a well oiled machine. And there were so many people, families from different states, many in big groups, buying sarees in bulk for weddings. It was lovely to see all the saree designs, but so tough to choose from! So we spent a few hours there, while waiting for the temples to open.

Ekambareswarar gate

After one burst of saree shopping, we left to visit the Ekambareswarar temple, one of the Pancha Bhoota temples of Shivji. We went there at 430pm when it was about to open again, but were shocked by the number of people waiting to get in! We avoided the crowd and went in 15 mins later. It felt more normal then. Still we encountered a long queue for the darshan. You could get VIP (faster) darshan though by paying Rs. 100.

Ekambareswarar tank

I walked around the vast complex (it’s 25 acres!), admiring its many beautifully adorned gates and the hall with the 1000 pillars. There was also a water tank in the complex. The temple has multiple gopurams, whose reflections look ethereal in the waters of the pond. There is an ancient mango tree there which I could not find. I also saw some women at one side wearing the same coloured sarees (yellow and green), dancing (in a style similar to garba) and singing bhajans. My guess is they were pilgrims from the same sect and following some specific rituals. We also saw loads of women in red sarees, all coming in the pilgrim buses we had seen earlier. I think there was some traditional pilgrimage happening at that time of the year.

Kamakshi Amman temple

We then walked to another nearby temple, the Kamakshi Amman Temple which had a water tank within the complex and a stunning view at sunset. It was still closed though, as different temples have different opening and closing times! So we walked around, and seeing the queue of people sitting in line, we ate prasad, sat there for a while and then went back to saree shopping 😍. There were some more famous temples to visit in town, like the Varadharaja Perumal temple and the Vaikuntha Perumal temple but as we were short on time, we skipped those.

I was quite surprised to see how temples were different here than what had I experienced before. Most of the women wore sarees in the temples while the men mostly wore dhotis. And that the pujaris put ash on the forehead of the devotees, that was new for me.

After a few more hours spent shopping for sarees (we spent a total of 6 hours in the shop!), we finally ate food at another ‘veg restaurant’, the Adyar Anand Bhavan. While we were eating, girls wearing bharatnatyam costumes just walked in for dinner after a performance. It was nice to see girls walking around in such traditional clothes. After a tasty meal, and with our hearts (and shopping bags) full, we drove back late at night to Mahabalipuram.

The drive back was quicker, taking us just 1.5 hours. On the way, we saw lots of churches decorated for Christmas as it was close to Christmas time. The churches were gaudily decorated with flashy lights - I had never seen churches decorated so brightly before. Also, the driving felt so non-chaotic and relaxed. People even gave signals on the highways when overtaking someone! That felt so different from North India.


Day 3: Mahabalipuram

Rock cut hill faces

We spent one whole day exploring Mahabalipuram, though I must say I found it less impressive than Kanchipuram, which had a lot more to see and explore. Mahabalipuram is located next to the sea and for people from Chennai, is a kind of a weekend seaside getaway as it is cooler than the city. It was a major port from Pallava times from the 7th century AD, and also has a huge complex of rock cut temples near the sea which are quite impressive. In the morning, we explored those places, then tried to visit a nearby beach. In the afternoon, we went back to our hotel for an afternoon nap. And in the evening, we again went to the Shore temple to enjoy the Dance Festival.

Pancha Ratha

The whole Mahabalipuram temple complex is spread out near the sea and has a lot to see. There was a combined ticket for the whole area. We first drove to the Pancha Rathas, where there are five monuments named after the Pandavas and Draupadi.

The Shore Temple

Then we drove to the Shore Temple which is a historic Pallava temple surrounded by the sea on three sides. It’s a beautiful temple built in Pallava style of architecture. And in front of it, is a courtyard with hundreds of Nandi statues all around. On both sides of the temple is the beach but it wasn't very inviting. On one side, there were thousands of small shops crowded with people (I think it may have been a religious mela going on at that time) and even getting to the beach would have been tough. On the other side, it was rocky and didn’t look too clean.

Hill-top temple

From there, we walked towards the other group of temples inside the temple complex. There were just so many small and big temples, most of them within 5-10 mins walking from each other. There were hilltop temples, small shivs temples, viharas with sculpted pillars, temples cut into the hill faces and so on.

Viharas

They were all so intricately carved, so impressive. The famous lighthouse on the way also had a panoramic view of the sea and greenery around. It was raining that day though, so that tempered our experience. Also, the school holidays had started, and there were crowds everywhere. It was crazy. But overall, I loved these old magnificent temples.

Sadras beach

It was tough to get out of the complex though given all the crazy traffic on the roads. Somehow we got out and then thought of going to a local beach. We found one on Google, in Sadras village, called the Sadras beach. The beach was nice but there was nothing to do there. No facilities, no changing rooms, no place to sit, nothing. Just some fisherman with their boats going out to sea. And the ruins of a Dutch fort. There were too many waves in the water as it was a very windy day. Everything made it tough to swim there, so we didn’t. (I should have made a note to myself to not listen to Google anymore too 😜).

Dance festival

We went back to our hotel for an afternoon nap, and then came back to the Shore Temple. In the evening, there was a week long Dance Festival being held in front of the temple in the open air. We saw a few folk and bharatnatyam performances there. It was just so nice to be out in the open with the sea breeze blowing - the whole atmosphere was so pleasant. We walked to the temple again, it looked so serene, lighted up at night amid the sounds of the waves on the beaches around. It was so beautiful, we enjoyed our evening out a lot.


Day 4: Pondicherry and Chidambaram

After Mahabalipuram, our next stay was in Thanjavur, the old Chola capital. It was a long day of driving till there, at least 6 hours. So we broke up the driving by stopping at two places on the way. First was Pondicherry, which was a bit of a let down as it was too crowded for us to enjoy its serenity and calmness. The second was the famous Nataraja temple of Chidambaram, which was a dream. I loved it.

The route from Mahabalipuram to Pondicherry is also along the East Coast Road but there was no coast to see again 😂. The roads were far from the coast. We did see a lot of waterbodies and backwaters there though. And all along there was a lot of greenery, including many mango orchards. The houses around were colourful and we drove by loads of temples on the way. But overall, it wasn't really too scenic a drive.

Alamparai fort

We took one detour on the way and stopped by a random fort next to the sea. It was the Alamparai fort, located next to a fishing village, with a beautiful backwater beach next to it. It was a 17th century fort, but in ruins now. The walls were so thick and the beach there had such clean water with no waves. It was so calm, I loved it. It would be a beautiful place to host corporate events in the evenings. While driving back from there, we bought local coconut oil from a village on the way.

In Pondicherry, we first visited Auroville which was a bit of a mess to get to as Google Maps was taking us through small forest roads. We followed it for a while, through orchards and huge bungalows on both sides. But then we chickened out seeing the narrow barely there road and drove back to take the main but longer route. It was also narrow, with loads of traffic but at least there was a road. We were impressed with the number of fancy cafes on the way though.

We didn’t know the philosophy or what to expect in Auroville. Apparently it is an experimental township inspired by the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, and has attracted many people from India and abroad. People visit Auroville to learning more about this philosophy. And when visiting, most people visit the Matrimandir (the meditation centre).

The Matrimandir

Auroville from the inside was huge with lots of green space and had loads of activities going on. Apparently for entering the Matrimandir hall you need to register a few days before. Otherwise if you turn up on the day, you can take a walk and view Matrimandir from afar.

So we decided to walk there. And the walk was weird. The path took us through things like an artificial zoo! There were a few boards explaining the philosophy of the place. I didn’t find any of it interesting though. Even the Matrimandir, (which you can only see from far) was not that impressive. I didn't understand the concept of this place and why people visit it. We could have definitely avoided it - it felt like a total waste of time and effort.

Temples on the way

After that, we drove to Pondicherry town. It felt more like a Tamil town than an ex-French place. We had lunch at Meenakshi veg restaurant right in front of which was another temple. And enjoyed the food.

Streets of Whitetown

After that, we drove to Whitetown, the old French part of town. We mostly walked through the old streets with their pastel coloured houses, all along the sea. It had a very European feel to it, tree lined streets with two storey coloured houses around. It would have been beautiful in the past.

I walked along the Rue Dumas and Rue Romain Rolland. Then by some parks and old churches. And some cute cafes. The whole area was a pedestrian only zone and easy to walk along. But with the crazy end of year crowds, it wasn't as fun as I expected. A bit underwhelming actually. I could see the potential of its charm, but didn't feel it really.

Pondicherry Waterfront

We then walked on the waterfront, which had a rocky beach and didn't feel that inviting either. We walked past the Gandhi statue and went into a shilp mela with handicrafts from different states. It was the most interesting place we saw in Pondicherry 😂. Not really impressed, we left soon enough. Our next stop was the Chidambaram temple in the town of Chidambaram. And all along the way, we drove by loads of decorated churches.

Chidambaram city was a bit tough to get into. The roads were all clogged with traffic. We also passed by tourist buses with women dancing inside. At one point, we just got out of the car and walked to the temple. And what a majestic experience it was.

Pillars in the temple

The Chidambaram temple is a huge complex, surrounded by a huge water tank and with pillared halls and many smaller temples around. The main temple was just massive. It has four main gopurams and thousands of sculptures and pillars everywhere. It felt like such a spectacular architectural marvel built of solid rock which has stood its ground for centuries.

We walked inside with awe. There was a festival going on - the Brahmotsav - so there were hundreds of priests chanting mantras. Everything was lighted up, inside and outside. We saw the Nataraja moorti but from so far, it looked different from how I had imagined it to be. The temple is also said to be the home of bharatnatyam. Then we saw some bharatnatyam performances being done by children. It felt so different from North Indian temples - rock solid, with no bells, no water anywhere. Everywhere, there was just so much energy, it was infectious. There were also a lot of crowds inside. But somehow everything still felt spiritual. 

Chidambaram gate

On the outside too, there were people everywhere. The temple gates decorated with colourful statues stood as guardians to this stunning temple. The water tank was huge and reflected the lights from the gopurams. But I felt a strange calmness even though it was filled with thousands of people. It did have a power to it. An energy which I can’t explain.

Chidambaram temple tank

We had dinner at Adyar Anand Bhavan which was the first place we ate at, where the food was not that tasty. And then we drove to Thanjavur all the way at night. When we reached Thanjavur, it felt so empty. It also felt like a smaller town than the others. 

There were a few more places to see on this drive but we didn't have time. I was fascinated with Tranquebar, an old Danish fort along the sea. But we couldn’t go there. It had been a long day anyways, with 8 hours of driving, and 7 hours of visiting places. Also, I had been excited about Pondicherry but it was a disappointment. Maybe it had more to do with the time of the year and the crowds than the place? Maybe my experience would be different at a different time? But I loved the Chidambaram temple, totally.