Thirukovilur

We travelled from Thiruvannamalai to Thirukovilur, the temple town which hosts the famous Tiruvikramaswamy temple. This is one of the pancha Krishnaranya Kshetras. It is situated 35 kilometres from Thiruvannamalai.

Lord Thiruvikramar Temple
This temple was built around 2000 years back by the Pallavas in various stages. The holy idol of Lord Thiruvikrama is about 21 feet tall.
The Lord is standing on one feet (left feet) while the other one is pointing towards the sky. Lord Brahma is performing pooja to the right foot and Namuchi, the grandson of King Mahabali if offering is prayers to the left foot. Goddess Mahalakshmi is standing below the right leg of the Lord. Baktha Prakaladan and King Mahabali are found on the right side of the Lord. To the left are the first three Azhwars who rendered the famous Naalayira Divya Prabandham in this temple. Also found are Mrugundu maharishi and his wife. This is one of the 108 divya desams of the Vaishnavites. Another unique feature of this Lord is that the Chakra is found in the left hand while the Conch is in the right hand (it is usually the other way in all other temples). The Lord on account of happiness is said to have exchanged his conch and chakra when he received the three foot of land from King Mahabali. The Lord shows his pointer finger symbolizing his question to King Mahabali as to where to put the third foot. (The Vaamana avatar states that Lord Vishnu appeared as an andhana before Lord Mahabali asking for three foot of land. King Mahabali agreed. Lord Vishnu took a vishwaroopam and measured one foot with land and the other foot with heaven. When the God asked for the third place to keep his foot, King Mahabali offered his head. Lord Vishnu is called as
Vaamanar in his appearance as andhana with a small structure. When he measures the earth and heaven with his viswaroopa darshan he is called as Thiruvikraman meaning the Lord who conquered three lands)

The main deity Lord Thiruvikrama is archamurthy. The ursava murthy or the presiding deity is Dehaleesan. The Vaamanar sannidhiis found behind Lord Thrivikramar’s sannidhi. The Thayar is found in the form of Goddess Mahalakshmi though called as Pushpavalli Thayar. The thayar is called as varaprasadhi by devotees. Another unique feature of this temple is the presence of Vishnu Durga. The presence of Durga in a vaishnavite temple is unique. This durga is none other than the daughter of Yaosda, who was replaced with Krishna by Vasudeva in Krishna avatar. She is said to be near her brother guarding him. This sannidhi is found just outside the Thiruvikrama Sannidhi.

There are also other sannadhis for Sri Anjaneyar, Sri Lakshmi Narayanan, Sri Lakshmi Varahan, Sri Lakshmi Narasimhar, Sri Andal, Sri Ramanujar and Sri Venugopalaswamy. This temple is administered by Sri Emperumanar Jeeyar Mutt for more than 600 years.

Quick facts:
State: Tamilnadu
District: Villupuram
City/Town: Thirukovilur
Temple: Lord Thiruvikramaswamy Temple
Main deity: Lord Thurvikraman, Goddess Pushpavalli Thayar
Temple Timings: 6.30 AM-12.00 Noon and 4 PM-8.30 PM

Thiruvannamalai

The travel time from Bangalore (Indiranagar) to Thiruvannamalai was about 3 hours 40 minutes to cover a distance of 211 Kilometers. We travelled to Thiruvannamalai via Hosur, Krishnagiri, Oothangarai and Chengam. The roads were bad till Hosur due to the express highway work for the electronic city. It is just a cakewalk from Hosur to Krishnagiri on the four lanes. Just before reaching Krishnagiri you need to pay toll-highway usage fee. It costs you Rs.25 per trip for a car. It just took 45 minutes to cover the distance of 53 kilometers between Hosur and Krishnagiri. The road gets narrowed after this as they are undivided two lane roads.

Lord Arunachaleswarar Temple, Thiruvannamalai

We started around 3.20 PM from our home and reached Tiruvannamalai at 7 PM. We immediately went for a darshan to Lord Arunachaleswarar temple. As it was a week day and a non-full moon day there was not much crowd. After having the darshan of Lord Muruga (the place where HE appeared before Arunagirinathar), we had the darshan of Lord Annamalai and Goddess Unnamulai. We took Rs.20 tickets to have a glimpse of the Lord from a nearest spot. We also had the darshan of “Paathala Lingam” where Sri. Ramana Maharishi was in meditation for several years. We did not perform “girivalam” which is offered by many devotees who throng this temple.

Quick facts:

State: Tamilnadu

District: Thiruvannamalai

City/Town: Thiruvannamalai

Temple: Lord Arunachaleswarar Temple

Main deity: Lord Annamalai (a) Arunachaleswarar, Goddess Unnamulai

Related URLs

http://www.arunachaleswarar.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiruvannamalai

http://tiruvannamalai.tripod.com/temple.htm

Mysore - Part II

Our next stop was at Srirangapatna. To our surprise, there was not much crowd though it was a Puratasi Saturday which is auspicious for Lord Vishnu. We had a good darshan of Lord Sriranga and Goddess Mahalakshmi. We were not able to stop comparing with Lord Ranganathar at Srirangam, Trichy. Our daughter had fun watching monkeys in the temple. There is a bunch of monkeys which target any pilgrim coming out with the archana plate. They do not leave way unless you depart the bananas from the plate. It was fun watching them looting this way.

We took a call to proceed further to Mysore and explore whatever places we could see before the sun sets. My husband wanted to see the palace and I wanted to visit the Chamundeswari Temple for sure. So we decided to see them without fail. Mysore welcomed us with a big flower arch kept for Dussera. It was past 11 by that time. I wanted to visit the temple first as it might be closed by noon. The sign boards guiding the way for site seeing places were found only in important juntcions. We had to stop and look for someone to guide us in all other junctions for the right direction. We reached Chamundi Hills around 12. The temple had heavy rush due to Dussera. The queue in Rs.20 tickets was so long and you could imagine how much it would be for free darshan. I was very upset as it might take hours if we stand in the queue for a darshan.

It started raining and my husband wanted to leave. I was just hoping for someone to help us in having a quick darshan. My husband asked me to stand with the kid and went to check at the counter. I had no hopes of a darshan. He came back with 100 rupees tickets which allow you to go through the main entrance without having to follow the queue. I was so overwhelmed by his courtesy to satisfy my wish and we had a great darshan of Goddess Chamundeswari.

The hill was bearing a festive look and was getting ready for the D-Day on Vijayadasami (2 days from the day we visited). The tenth day of Dussera is celebrated as the day of victory to rejoice about the triumph of Goddess Chamundi over demon Mahishasura. We were happy that we could make it up to this temple during Dussera.

As we drove down the hill it started raining heavily. Our next stop was at the palace. The palace was open to visitors from 2.30 Pm only. It was around 1 Pm when we were there. So we decided to finish our lunch and St. Philomena’s church before hitting the palace again. We went to the church first. We had to remain in the car for about 30 minutes as it was raining heavily. Managing Appu inside the car for 30 minutes was an uphill task.

St. Philomena’s church is a beautiful cathedral and is in the memory of the first bishop of Mysore. The cathedral is the largest Cathedral in South Asia. The stained glass painted windows were adding beauty to the hall. The twin spires of the church stand very majestic and no wonder it is another example for architecture in India. We had fun photo shoot while drizzling.

After having a low profile :o( buffet lunch at Hotel Ramanashree (Next time I make sure to stay away from this hotel) , we proceeded to the Mysore Maharaja’s palace. We were directed from one entrance to the other as there were 6 entrances to the palace but the entrance tickets were available only from one entrance. We could see the Dussera (Mad) rush in the palace alone. Thought of getting out of that place immediately :o)

We rushed through the visitors point inside the palace in 30 minutes and hit the road back to Bangalore. Appu started sleeping and we wanted to cover as much mileage as possible. We reached Rajarajeswari nagar in 2 hours. From there, to our home at Indiranagar it was just the usual Bangalore traffic. We reached home at 8.15 Pm and this is how the trip was....

On the way to Mysore and in Mysore

On a Saturday morning we were all set for our journey. A day’s trip to Mysore. We have aleady visited Mysore and hence wanted to explore places on the way to Mysore trip, more on a religious footage. Often we have come across the name of “Lord Navaneetha Krishna” in the tamil magazine “Kumudam Jodhidam” and have been wanting to see him. Lord Navaneetha Krishna has his place in “Maloor Aprameya Swamy Temple, Doddamalooru” on the Bangalore-Mysore road in Channapatna. http://www.channapatnacity.gov.in/

We started from home around 6.15 Am by car with our little kid (yet to be 2). Packing and travelling with a kid is really difficult as you all know. My husband too had a stiff back and was not sure if we would travel or not till that morning. We were not sure what all we could cover but still started hoping to cover Doddamallur atleast. We reached Doddamallur around 7.20 AM. Doddamallur is about 63 Kms from Bangalore. It is on the banks of river Kanva. It is on the Bangalore-Mysore road (left hand side of the road when travelling from Bangalore towards Mysore) withing 2 Kms from the Channapatna bus stand. Dodda Mallur, or simple Mallur is where the 1600 years old temple of Lord Apprameya (the name finds place in Vishnu Sahasranama..”Apprameya Rishi kesho..”). The temple has the shrine of Lord Rama Apprameya, Goddess Aravindavalli and Lord Navaneetha Krishna.

The chief attraction of the temple is this krishna whose shrine is hand sculptured in saligrama stone. You could just see a 8 month old charming child crawling with his right leg on the air and butter (Navaneeth) in the right hand. With anklets in his legs and ornaments in his neck, this Krishna with his curly hair just takes away your heart as you see him.

We heard from the priest that Saint-Singer Purandaradasa composed his most famous song “Jagadodharana adisidalu yasoda” for this Krishna. For generations it is believed that this Krishna has the special power of blessing childless couples. Many childless couples come and worship him. They perform an archana for this Krishna and offer their prayers. Once they are blessed with a child, they could come back with the child to offer a cradle that is tied on the ceiling of Lord Navaneetha’s sannidhi.

The temple is opened between 8 Am and 12 noon , 4 Pm and 8.30 Pm. We could get the photos or idols of Lord Krishna in a small shop outside.

There are no public rest rooms available but a near by family has let their restroom to be used by the pilgrims visiting the temple. (So nice of them!! This too is a kind of service).

There is a board in the temple mentioning about 1200 years old Narasimha temple nearby (within 1 Km from there). We were not able to make it during this trip. Hope we will cover that too in our next trip.

More to come......