Temples of Tamil Nadu (3): Thanjavur to Madurai

Itinerary (1)
Chennai to Thanjavur (2)

Brihadeshwar temple

As we continued to drive south along the state, the scale and grandness of the temples increased. Thanjavur was a revelation, its Chola heritage on full display at the two Brihadeswar temples. And Rameswaram and Madurai temples were even grander in their splendour.


Day 5: Kumbakonam and Gangaikonda Cholapuram

Kumbeshwar temple

Our first day in Thanjavur was a temple day and we spent it in Kumbakonam, and then Gangaikonda Cholapuram. In the morning, we visited Kumbakonam, the town of temples, a 30 mins drive away. It had so many temples (in the thousands apparently), it was tough to figure out which to visit and which not. Each temple has its own followership and manyata, and most people come there annually to visit their family temple.

Mahaut at temple

We first went to the Kumbeshwar temple which was thankfully not crazy busy. It had beautiful gates on all sides. The queue for darshan was also relatively short. They even had an elephant with its mahout along the corridor, which kept the children entertained. After a quick visit, we tried to walk to the next temple but it was tough to walk without slippers.

Mahamaham tank

So we came back, wore our shoes and walked to the famous Mahamaham tank. But its temple was closed by then, as were all the other temples as it was afternoon time already. So we just walked into town to eat and drink. It seemed like a small town but still had thousands of temples.

Next we drove to Cholapuram, 60 mins away. Gangaikonda Cholapuram was the capital of the Chola kingdom in the 11th century. I wanted to explore the place for Chola history but wasn't able to. I researched where to see Chola ruins but they aren’t easily accessible. It looks like there aren't a lot of surviving monuments from the Chola period except the Brihadeshwar temple. We even tried to see if we could spend time around the historical Chola lake but there were no restaurants or even a path to walk around. We couldn't find any information on how to explore the area either. I was definitely quite disappointed with the tourism part of the experience here.

Gangaikonda temple

In the end we just drove to the temple and spent our entire afternoon there, waiting for it to open. It was a grand monument in yellow, with carvings everywhere. All around was a huge complex and the gardens were green and well maintained. There were many smaller temples within the complex too. It was full of people spending the afternoon there, and we did the same. We walked around admiring the carvings, the sculptures and architecture. 

Once the doors of the temple opened, we tried getting in for darshan, but seeing the crowds, we gave up. Later we were able to get in from a side entrance for a quick darshan. The shivling there was huge and impressive. And I felt it had some unexplainable power to it. It reminded me of the shivling at the Halebidu temple of Karnataka.

Sculptures

Other than that, we spent the whole afternoon and evening, just walking around and admiring this beautiful place. At sunset, the colours of the stone were even prettier. What an architectural marvel it is, in the middle of nowhere.

After spending a lot of time at the temple, we drove back to Thanjavur. Today, we had dinner at Ariya Bhavan, which again served tasty food and very quick service. The town felt quite simple too with some museums and historical places to see. There were many churches and mosques everywhere too.

Finding a hotel to stay in Thanjavur had been tough. There were no good 4-5 star hotels in or around Thanjavur. We found some resort kind of places on the outskirts but they were all booked out already. The other option was to stay far off in Trichy, but that would have been inconvenient. In the end, we booked the one option we found in Thanjavur, the Hyders Mahal Palace and Hotel. We were apprehensive about it but in the end the experience turned out to be interesting but fine. 

It was located in the city but on a main road. So it was easy to get to without having to drive on trafficked roads. All around it was green forested area, which was quite welcome. It also turned out to be a completely new hotel. So everything was brand new. So new that many things were still unopened. Like the mattress still had the plastic cover on it and we had to ask the guys to remove it before we could sleep on it 😆. The switches all still had plastic on it. So we did have some teething troubles.

Also, the manager and the other guys didn't know how to run the hotel - we had to ask them for everything. Cups in the room, toiletries, and so on. It was funny actually, us telling them how they need to host guests. They were very friendly and helpful except they didn't know much 😂. Either way, the quality of the hotel amenities was new and good, so it turned out fine.

Also they had a guard from Nepal who spoke Hindi. It felt like such a welcome change that someone could understand our language. As most people we interacted with till now did not speak any English either and no Hindi anyways. So communication had been tough. But it was so much easier here that we could explain what we needed. Language is such a big part of the experience travelling anywhere I think.


Day 6: Thanjavur

We took the next day easy, spending all our time in Thanjavur city itself. We saw the Brihadeshwar temple in the morning, the Thanjavur Palace in the afternoon and then went back to Brihadeshwar temple at night. It was a relaxed day, and I was very happy we spent so much time at the Brihadeshwar temple, it was just fabulous.

First view

We had seen the top of the temple a few times while driving towards our hotel, as it was close to the main road. Still seeing it up close was a different experience altogether. Nothing prepares you for what you feel when you approach it. It is majestic, it is grand, it is spectacular, it's an architectural marvel.

Brihadeshwar temple

All around the temple is a canal and a moat. And some remnants of a fort, though the temple is the main surviving structure from the Chola times. You walk in through three intricately carved gates. And are greeted by a huge statue of Nandi and then a covered platform, with the main temple behind it all. All around the complex are pillared halls. And there are many other small temples in the complex, which were built by later kings, including the Marathas who were the last rulers in Thanjavur.

Sculptures

The sculptures everywhere are just outstanding - so intricate, so fresh, so grand - most of them based on mythological stories. There are carvings everywhere and thousands of different figures all around. And there are inscriptions along the pillared halls on the sides. There are also hundreds of shivlings in those pillared halls.

It was just such a pleasure to explore it all. We spent a few hours walking around, taking it all in. The crowds there were crazy though, long queues for everything. We did manage to get a quick darshan of the deity. For me though, it was the architecture of the temple which was just outstanding. This was my favourite temple on this trip along with the Chidambaram temple.

Sculptures

Sculptures

After spending some time here, we went to Thanjavur Maratha Palace which was the home of the Maratha kings who ruled Thanjavur much after the Cholas. It had a few museums, a darbar hall, an old antiques library and housed the famous Chola bronzes. It was a great place but run down and not well maintained. The museums had barely anything - random things left behind by the kings. And they all had separate tickets to get in.

Thanjavur Palace

The Saraswati library was outstanding though, it had old palm leaf scriptures, some so small and delicately written that it was difficult to even imagine how they were made. There were a few painted books which were very old. And many other rare manuscripts from the Maratha kings’ collections. This display was really wow. I loved it. The Chola bronzes were also quite impressive. There was a room with dozens of Nataraja statues and they all looked lovely. The darbar hall was closed though which is also supposed to be impressive. There was also an AV show, showcasing Thanjavur and its cultural heritage, which was very good. 

Overall though, the palace was very badly maintained. Everything was broken. Also I realised, people fight so much here. And loudly. We saw 3 fights between the organisers and tourists that day - in the Brihadeshwar temple, at the ticket counter for the palace museums and in the restaurant when there was a long queue.

Temple at night

We went for a nap in in the afternoon, and then went to the Brihadeshwar temple again, to see it during sunset. We were expecting fewer crowds but that didn't happen! The temple looked sparkling in the lighting though, as stunning as in the morning.

Inscriptions on the walls

We went out to town in the evening. It was so quiet. We also had orange coconut water for the first time. For dinner, we went to a very different type of restaurant, the Abhirami Bhavan. The menu focused on a different variety of dosa - the ghee roast dosa. It was so spicy and yummy though heavy. It was also so cheap! Three of us ate for just Rs. 300. Interestingly, they called a person from UP who worked next door to talk to us to take our order in Hindi 😆. He used to sell Chinese food next door. 

After dinner, we decided to explore the market a bit. We saw many artificial gold jewellery shops selling very good jewellery. The designs were nice and almost felt real gold. It's the first time we got to see them, I was impressed. Other than that, we wanted to look at and buy the famous Thanjavur paintings but somehow did not get time for it. As we had a long day the next day, we called it a night soon.


Day 7: Rameswaram

Today was one of the longest days of our trip. We had not originally planned to visit Rameswaram, but later added it to our itinerary. So we drove about 6-7 hours till there, visited the temple and Dhanushkodi beach and then drove another 3 hours to reach Madurai very late at night.

We left early around 8 am and chose to drive by the sea, instead of on the new highways. That was a mistake I think. We didn't see much of the coast at all. We stopped at the Manora fort on the way which is supposed to be a scenic watch tower. The restaurant and garden next to it were closed and there was nothing to do there. It was also a bit dirty and not well maintained. 

The area on both sides of the roads was fully inhabited. There was a lot of greenery, sometimes forested and lots of time with rice fields. Sometimes we saw the sea and beaches, but mostly it felt like an inland drive. And somehow, there wasn’t a lot of beauty around.

Pamban bridge

On the way to Rameswaram, we crossed the Pamban bridge over the sea which was fun to cross. Many cars just stopped on the bridge to take a look! From there, it looked like Rameswaram island had some turquoise water beaches. We also passed by APJ Kalam’s memorial. He belonged to this island, and his home was also on the way.

Our first stop on the island was Dhanushkodi beach. But it was tough to get there as the traffic that day was a nightmare. Cars were just stuck everywhere. We somehow got through it and drove the 25 kms along the narrow stretch of the land. The whole drive was through green mangroves and backwaters or sandy beaches all around. There were a few temples on the sides too. On the way, there was a village called Dhanushkodi which had so many food shops. But it was mostly destroyed during a cyclone in the past. And now it only had kuccha huts. But there was a lot of plastic on the seaside and that spoilt the experience for me.

At the end of the road is a lighthouse. It was so crowded, we stopped early and just walked a bit along the coast. Both sides had huge boulders along the sea. And completely different seas. One side of the road was the Bay of Bengal with huge waves, the other side was the Indian Ocean which was calm. We saw the sunset there, it was nice. We then drove back and stopped at a beach on the way, which was pretty and less crowded. I wish we had enough time to swim in the water. But because of the traffic, we had wasted a lot of time already. It was so crowded everywhere, I felt there is no point visiting this place in the peak season.

Ramanathaswamy temple

We then drove back and visited the Ramanathaswamy temple in the evening. It is one of the 4 dhams of India and located right next to the sea. It had 4 gopurams all around. We did a VIP darshan, of all the deities in the temple. We saw the famed longest temple corridor of the world, with its 1212 pillars, the painted roof and columns. But somehow, the experience felt a bit underwhelming, maybe because they were VIP darshan without all the waiting which is also part of the process?

Longest temple corridor

For dinner, we stopped at a town called Ramnathpuram, at Bheemas. The rest of the drive was on highways and we didn't mind as it was at night. We reached our hotel in Madurai, Gateway Madurai very late at night, though we could already see how awesome it was. It was located on a hilltop, with bungalows in the old colonial style, surrounded by greenery all around. 



Day 8: Madurai

View of Madurai

We finally experienced our hotel in the morning and it was fabulous. From the hotel, we had a 180 degrees view of the town below, and it was so scenic. Interestingly, we could also hear everything from down below, including loudspeaker music from the temples! We could even see the Meenakshi temple gopuram from there. And the whole morning, there was fog hanging around the city which made it look almost magical.

After a lazy morning, we went for a VIP darshan to the Meenakshi temple. I loved the experience there, it felt better planned and less chaotic than the other temples. We got off from our cars a bit earlier and then walked to the temple. The area all around it was a pedestrian zone with no cars and very well managed. It was quite empty with lots of space to walk. I really liked the crowd management here.

Inside the temple, the huge sculptures on the pillars and the walls were just amazing. And there were so many of them, everywhere. We walked through all the corridors, doing all the darshans (again VIP darshan). We also saw the 1000 pillar hall, the temple tank and the museum.

There is a Shiva and Parvati shrine in side the temple, and each night the Shiva deity is taken to Parvati’s shrine. The shivling here also felt like it had some divine energy. This was the first temple where I finally felt some peace and quiet, a sense of spirituality. I really liked being here. I must commend the temple management for making it possible, given the huge crowds coming in daily. Interestingly, no phones were allowed inside which is great as there are no distractions. There was a lot of renovation going on though which hid parts of the temple. Still it was a lovely experience.

View from poolside

After the temple, we walked to one of the nearby saree shops, Pothys, and spent some time shopping there. We came back to our hotel in the afternoon and explored the hotel. It was a spread out property located on top of a hill with a view of the whole town below. It was apparently the home of the British owners of one of the mills in the area and was very luxurious. There were many bungalows for residents, all surrounded by greenery. When I was swimming, there were some 10-15 peacocks walking around the pool. And the view of the town from the poolside was stunning. We could even see a faraway lake and sunset beyond it.

In the evening, we went for dinner into town, to Sree Sabarees. It wasn't as good as the other places we had gone to. After dinner, we checked out a few more shops. We wanted to check out some local sarees in the city but did not get a chance to do that. Overall, I liked Madurai town. The traffic wasn’t chaotic and felt quite well managed. And the city felt like a slow, well planned place.


Day 9: Back to Delhi

The last day was short of course. We enjoyed the hotel as much as we could in the morning, then left for the airport. The road to the airport was quite bad and the airport was quite small, though convenient.


Looking back on the trip, I think I absolutely loved the temple architecture I experienced. It’s something I haven't seen in other parts of the country. But I did feel overwhelmed by the omnipresence of religion around. And the overall unwelcome and unfriendly behaviour for tourists dampened my overall experience.