Colours of Southern India

        In southern India, a few kilometers from Tiruchirapalli (Trichi ), a vast span of land, dedicated to hindu dharma where rituals dated back to 12^th century AD or even before, are practiced with unrelenting devotion, that has been instilled in the minds of the people by the great chola kings.

A temple soars above the surrounding countryside, every few miles, covered with emerald green rice fields and vast palm forest. With the Kaveri river supplying resources to support the beings, this place has nothing to demand.

As for the cities like phom-phe, the temples of Angkor wat and the lost forbidden city of china, the city of thanjavur and its nearby local towns have not been forbidden by its dwellers. I first read about thanjavur in the book, Nine Lives b William Darrylmple, he had portrayed the life in such brilliance. It was thrilling to learn the eye opening ceremony of statues and many other customs which remained buried into history books. So I decided to visit this enchanting place.

It was in December, 2010 that I started researching on the city and neighborhood towns. I stumped upon a treasure of 21 temples of the glorious chola period which still stand tall. It is said that the deities in these temples were hidden under white sands on the banks of the river kaveri to avoid there destruction in the hands of mogul invaders. The most popular deit is lord shiva, his lingams in every temple. I had to include all the 21 temples during my 6 days visit, and definitely it was going to be hectic. So to minimize the redundant time in reaching trichi from Mumbai and back to trichi, we booked plane tickets. Google earth comes handy when you are traveling into the unknown. So itook a few printouts of maps.

WE reached Mumbai airport by 4 eve, new constructional features were clearly evident, I hadn’t seen Mumbai airport for 4 years. The last time being nagpur trip. We boarded the boeing 707 by 6 and had booked aisle seats. It was kingfisher, with lovely ladies for all the onboard help. I have some kind of paranoia, and as we were airborne the usual feeling cropped up. For an hour time passed reading glitz and Chennai landing was announced. One hour later was trichi flight, it was an ATR plane, those with the fans attached to there wings and by 11 we finally were in our hotel rooms.

The next day, the  beginning of the visit, I woke up early and and had the traditional ubiquitous breakfast of idli, sambar, pongal, coconut chutney. But wait there was something way ahead of the ubiquity of these dishes prepared in northern states. Firstly the sambar tasted simply brilliant. It had a new mixture of spices, imli being the predominant one. No wonder India’s called the land of spices. Grape juice to end, and then I took a stroll near the hotel.

Everybody here wears lungi, whether you are on a bike or horse or cycle or simply walking its lungi, and then anything extra if needed. Its less crowded in trichy, might be coz its morning time. Sunrises at 6 in trichy people do not follow signals, and are quite reckless in driving. Everybody is computer literate. The hotel had a person operating some inventory management software on each floor. 80% people know English. They may not be fluent but speak understandable English. you may be lucky to find marathi speaking residents here, trichy and thanjavur have enjoyed the shelter of maratha rulers.

TVS bikes are more comman. TV sundaram Iyengar and sons has its hometown trichy.

I left at 9 for the first temple of the day, gurushilam temple, 12 kms from trichi. On the way we crossed the kaaveri river and went past sri rangam temple. Emrald green rice fields with the backdrop of palm trees and banana plantation decorated the canvas.

Banana is the chief fruit in the diet of trichy and mostly southern India. In southern India rice is the predominant meal. Items like chappati are nowhere to find. A variety of rice preparations can be relished, increasing the rice intake. This leads to constipation and hence the banana diet as supplementary. Its like having paan after lunch or dinner, and infact u will find banana’s at any grocery shop and even paanvalas. It is also, coz of the heavy rice intake, people have a protruding belly.  

Every temple has an entry fee, and if you are traveling by car then a necessary parking ticket. Gurushilam temple is decorated completely with flower patterns carved on granite base. Huge pillars support the temple top, fortunately I met a senior citizen who recognized I was marashtrian and shared few details and history of temples near trichy.

On the way, there were hoardings of some tamil superstar turned politician. We reached Sri Rangam by 12. the person I met had described Sri Rangam as “The Temple” of south India. And it surely makes up for the expectation. It’s the biggest temple in India. It has a rectangular wall perimeter surrounding the main dome or Gabhara which is complete gold. Four huge gates called Gopuras welcome devotees from four directions NSEW. The largest and tallest being the Raj Gopuram on the Southern Gate. The ceiling is supported by huge pillars soaring 40 feet. The ceiling and the pillars and almost everything is made of beautifully carved granite, one of the toughest stones. Pillars have granite idols of men and women in welcome posture of “Nmaskar”. Sri Rangam is the abode of Lord Vishnu, and the temples ownership has been passed from Vishnu-brahma-shiva-dasharatha-rama-vibhishana.

One set of people wore red clothing and the other black. The Red ones were followers of Vishnu while the black ones, ayyappa of the Sabarimalla Shrine. These are the two sects in southern India. It took an hour to explore the temple and yet I had seen only 25 % of it.

The temples of south India have not enjoyed much tourist patronage. One reason being, the british rulers were not very impressed with the so called vulgarity shown on temple walls. They preferred the mogul architecture as it was close to their style, and hence admired it. The temples have been lost for 300 yrs in thick palm jungles. Although local inhabitants carried on the rituals, these temples were not open to the outside world for many years.

We had lunch by 1 pm in a typical southy restaurant. The only menu was rice plate, with a variety of vegetable and pulse preparations to eat, with. Meal was served on a banana leaf, no plates.

I went to the rokfort temple which is situated on a huge rock or hill which resembles the lingam of shiva. On top, is the ganesh temple. The view above is mesmerizing, a 360 degree panoramic splendor. The day started and ended with ganesh temples.

On striking feature of these temples, every temple has a shiva temple as its main deity and then the devgraha of the god to whom the temple is dedicated. The entrance of  dome is covered with gold decorations  and gold plated statues. This is a good sign, as it brings into memory the golden age India  enjoyed once.

Finding good vegetarian hotels is a problem in trichy, especially if your staying on the outskirts. And if you get one there’s no guarantee that they will serve the thali type meal.

So I had to satisfy with the same junk items we usually “relish” in cities.

On 3^rd, I visited the Brihadeeshwara temple In thanjavur. The trichi thanjavur highway is 4 lane and our taxi zoomed at average 80 kph. Brihadeeshwar is the largest temple projects conducted by rajraja chola in 1000AD and completed in 1110AD. Its made of 100% granite and took 3 generations of the chola empire to complete. The top gopur is made from a single granite slab weighing more than 50 tons. The thanjavur Chola descendent lives in thanjavur palace. The myths and secrets passed on from generation to generation. It is said that the slab was brought to its place on top of the temple using a ramp, 8 kms to the west, behind the temple and having a gentle 6 degree slope. The temple is declared as UNESCO heritage site. Trained elephants welcome tourist at some temples. These are trained to give ashirwad to people who drop some money in their trunk.

Tamil nadu is the only state where the NavGraha’s have dedicated temples. Elsewhere Navgraha temple is included in the threshold of some other deity. These are spread over a 80 km radius with there  centre being Kumbakonam. So my 3^rd and 4^th went visiting the navgraha temple. The architecture is no different than other thnajavur or trich temples, and it can become quite boring unless you have made it customary or ritualistic to visit all the navgraha’s. it was forecasted that unseasonal rains would interrupt my visit to Nagapattinam, the tsunami affected caost. However I managed poompuhar, another beach 20 kms from Nagapattinam. It has been dilapidated since the tsunami with sparse population.

Swami malai is an important town in the history of chola period. It is famous for its bronze casting workshops. I knew Mr.Srikanda Stpathy (courtesy :- Nine Lives) and his workshop in Swami Malai. When I entered his workshop he was sitting in a brightly sunlit hall with few employees giving finishing touches to an idol wax model. The idol was in its first stage. I insisted if he could guide us through the procedure of idol making and he was kind enough to do so. The statues are made of five metal Copper, Iron, Gold, silver and bronze. Out of the five gold and silver are provided b the ordering party. The first stage is to create a wax model of the statue. Then it is covered with clay from the sacred Kaaveri River. The next stage is letting the clay dry creating a tough mould. The wax is melted by heating the mould and removed, giving a hollow mould. Then comes the hot metal casting, where the molten metal is poured into the mould giving the idol. Finishing touches are given by Mr. Stpathy and his employees. The largest idol manufactured by his workshop weighed 3 tons. The idols are solid and not hollow. This procedure of idol making has not changed since 2000 years. He is afraid, however, that this art form may diminish due to lack of interest, and urgent and quicker methods available such as plaster of paris moulds. His is the 23^rd generation of bronze casters and he hopes even his children will follow suite.

40 kms from Kumbakonam, in Gangaikondan Cholapuram is an architectural splendor, but quite a copy of the temple at thanjavur. It is also called the Brihadeeshwara temple and its construction conducted by Rajendra Cholan, son of Rajraja Chola. Its contruction started around the same time as the thanjavur temple . Green lawns are maintained in the temple campus, providing much green background. The off-white granite Nandi is the only difference from the black rock nandi of the thanjavur temple.

The name GangaiKondam is a sobriquet of rajendra chola, since he extended the empire upto the banks of river ganga.

In thanjavur temples traditional musicians play the enchanting ragas in front of deities. They are paid by the temple trust. Most common instruments being the veena, shehnai, and the Mrudangam. There syllables echo throughout the temple walls and produce an enlightening effect on body and soul. Some 50 kms from Kumbakonam is the Abhirami Mata temple. Its famous for couple coming specially on their 61^st marriage anniversary. A procession of such couples is carried with the traditional music providing the background score.

I returned to trichy on 5^th to experience some city life. The city centre is near the rockfort temple, with buzzing night market place and sweet shops. Rent a n interpreter if you can afford, otherwise it is going to cost a lot of time in understanding peoples directions. A strange thing though, people here rarely use gestures, and on the contrary Bharatnatyam the great classical dance form which involves expression through gestures has originated in tamil nadu itself. Mobile networks are the sturdiest in the country here. Regular repeater towers appear on the way. No wonder the 2G spectrum scam recently, suggests the predominance of cellular networks in business and political domain.