2013 Year End Pilgrimage To Trichy, Madurai, Pillayarpatti, Sankaran Koil, Tenkasi, Srivalliputhur and Thiruparakundram

This travelogue is about our year end trip to places in down south starting from Chennai to Trichy, Madurai, Pillayarpatti, Sankaran Koil, Tenkasi, Srivalliputhur and Thiruparakundram. We started on Monday (23rd December 2013) morning at 7 AM (All timings in IST :-))

It was a clear day and we began our journey to Madurai via Trichy on our Maruti Ritz Zxi. Me and my family were all enthusiastic for the long drive of about 500 Kms. We decided to have our breakfast at Villupuram on NH 45. I don't exactly remember the name of the restaurant but the food was just okay, we had mini tiffin (a combination of multiple south indian delicacies like pongal, upma, idli, mini dosa and coffee). We by passed Trichy @ about 12 noon traversing about 300 Kms.We didn't think of getting into the city rather left towards Madurai. 

Crossed Trichy, Enroute to Pillayarpatti - 1

Crossed Trichy, Enroute to Pillayarpatti -2

Enroute to Madurai, about 20 kms from Virarimalai we took a deviation for Pillayarpatti. It was about 1 30 PM in the noon and we were at Pillayarpatti. The temple was very peaceful and there wasn't any crowd hence no waiting period for us to see Karpaga Vinayaga. We saw a large idol of Ganesha and had a nice darshan. Few minutes spent in front of lord Ganesha mesmerized us. I actually forgot my self for those few seconds and was just looking at the lord.

Lord Karpaga Vinayagar's abode @ Pillayarpatti

We were partly hungry as it was lunch time but there was no good vegetarian hotel in the vicinity. We decided to postpone our lunch and have it at Madurai. We drove back from Pillayarpatti to Madurai. It was about 3 PM that we reached Madurai. Enter into the city and you can feel the congestion. The city has been primarily built around the Lord Meenakshi Temple. The streets are narrow with traffic swirling around with less than 20% of the population respecting traffic rules. We thought we will have some snacks before we check-in and take some rest. We had snacks (had to skip lunch as we were late) at Modern Restaurant. Pls don't go by the name, the restaurant is quite old but the taste of the food was laudable. I had Pongal and Vada, my family prefers Idlis to anything else specifically while traveling. We were at the Meenakshi temple at about 6 PM and was surprised to see the crowd lined up for kilometers. It was neither a Tuesday or a Friday and hence was not quite prepared for the crowd.

Side View of Meenakshi Amman Temple, Madurai

  

We were already tired of the day's journey and decided that we will go for special darshan instead. We bought in the special darshan tickets and proceeded towards inner praharam (section) of the temple. We were astonished to see a long line of devotees waiting for darshan of Lord Meenakshi. It took about more than 1 hour for us to reach the main sannidhanam (sanctum). We then proceeded to towards sanctum of Lord Sundareshwar. After visiting both the deities we were trying to call it a day. My wife was eager to see the 1000 pillar hall. Though I had seen it 10 years before, was stunned to see as it had undergone a major renovation. Pls note that one has to buy tickets in case you are carrying a cam but I bet it is worth it. See these stunning visuals....BTW my daughter (learning Bharatnatyam) could not stop herself from performing a few steps in front of Lord Natrajar.

Lord Natrajar @ Thousand Pillar Hall

Thousand Pillar Hall

On our way back to exit from the temple, we spotted the temple elephant which probably wasn't interested to be captured in the cam and hence it was rocking it's trunk continuously :-).

Temple Elephant @ Meenakshi Amman Temple

We returned back from Lord Meenakshi temple back to where we had checked in. The only hurdle in the whole event was parking. Madurai is a city constrained by space and hence parking is a menace. We were trying hard to find some parking space to park our car and go around places. No doubt, this gives rise to touts who say will help us in finding some space, charge money and finally ask us to leave the car some where in a by lane.

We did not feel like having dinner but my wife was interested in tasting a special from Madurai. We found jigarthanda and shared it as one could not complete whole big glass of it. We had a good night sleep on Monday and were all getting ready for the next days trip. 

 The next day we were supposed to cover over 350 kilometers. We got up at 6:30 AM and were ready by 07:30 AM. We had a steep day ahead. Had Idlis for breakfast and started our trip towards down south. The first place in our itinerary was Sankaran Koil. We reached our at 11 AM. We had a nice darshan of lord Sankara Narayanan.  Our next point was to reach Tenkasi and Courtrallam, hence decided to finish lunch in Sankaran koil itself before we start towards the waterfall destination. We had sumptuous lunch in banana leaves and were all excited to experience the chill breeze of Courtrallam. 

Courtrallam Main Waterfalls

We reached Courtrallam at around 3 PM. My daughter was all excited to have a bath in the scenic waterfalls. She took bath and we all got back into the car after spending about 45 mins there. We could buy some fresh gooseberries (they taste yum when turned into pickle) and started on our journey to Tenkasi. We offered our prayers to Lord Kasi Viswanath and thought if we could have some refreshing filter coffee. We could not find a good place both to park and relish coffee hence moved towards Srivilliputhur, next point in the map.

Main Entrance of Tenkasi Temple

Srivilliputtur is famous for two things Sri Andal Temple and Pal Khoa. We had both of it to our heart full. This is the second place where in we could observe a phenomenon of collecting parking fees without having a specified parking space. That was really frustrating and astonishing too.

 

Sri Andal Temple, Srivilliputhur

It was about 8 30 PM and we planned to have our dinner in there. We got into a small but a/c restaurant (Pls mind that Srivilliputhur is a relatively small town) serving hot food. Oh !! what an experience it was to try kal dosa, ragi dosa and other items. We had some hot refreshing inji (ginger) tea and started towards Madurai for the night halt. We reached Madurai at about 10 p m and all tired ready to drop in bed.

The next day was when we planned to come back to Chennai via Trichy. We planned to go to thiruparakundadam, one of lord Muruga's arupadai veedu. This is again a place where no parking was provided but parking fees collected. The steps of the temple were big and steep. To avoid the crowed, we resorted to short cut and had purchased tickets to save time. We finished our darshan at about 11:30 AM and started towards Trichy. We were on NH 45. and saw the climate getting cooler. We took a break rejoice the sweetness of tender coconut. 

En route to Trichy - 1

En route to Trichy -2

At about 2:30 PM we reached Trichy junction (taking a deviation off NH 45) and wanted to go to Thraiyur (Eragudi) to visit  temples there. 4:30 PM we reached Thuraiyur and drove towards Eragudi (8 kms from Thuraiyur). We prayed and paid our respects to Lord Angala Amman.

Temple Premise @ Eragudi

Angalamman @ Eragudi

 

The entire trip ran as planned, I had no contingencies but it still did go well. Thanks to the blessings of the almighty. We were all set to come back home and was on the look out for the Perambalur bypass connecting to the NH 45. We were on NH 45 at 8 PM that would mean it would take about 3 odd hours to reach Chennai. Again as planned after a coffee break in between at Melmaravathur, at 11:30 PM we reached home at Chennai after satisfying pilgrimage.

Thanks to all the gods for always being with us and blessing us !!