Wednesday, June 06, 2007

First trip to Srirangam

Last weekend I had been to Srirangam. To describe the place in a word, it was "Fabulous".

We lived in an apartment on the shore of Kaveri and near the temple too. That is, if one steps out of the house, there's the river on the left and the temple on the right.

There are two important and famous temples in and around Srirangam. So, I made my trip only to visit those two- the main Srirangam temple, and the Shiva temple in Thiruvanikaval.

We went to the srirangam temple on the first day at around 6.30 p.m., probably the best time to go there. It’s only a 5minutes travel by auto from "amma mandapam", which is supposedly a landmark in srirangam (Nope! it’s not owned by former TN CM:D) unfortunately though, I was not allowed to take any snaps inside the temple :(
Being a Saturday, it was too crowded. I couldn't just stand there!(that's why no pictures of that temple... will try to take some on my next trip) So, beware if you are visiting that place!

Next day, we went to thiruvanaikaval. It was a real treat. Beautiful sculptures and a beautiful elephant :). Not many people visit that temple, it seems. Nevertheless, it was too good as there was absolutely no crowd! The lingam is present in a spring. Lovely sight! More importantly, I was allowed to take pictures inside the temple, but not in the sannidhi, of course. One more important thing is that the temple was maintained very well, compared to the Srirangam main temple. And , if you notice the Gopuram, it is similar to the one on Madhurai Meenakshi Amman temple.

The only mistake we did was to have had our dinner in a hotel nearby. The food was pathetic, to say the least! Moreover, the hotel was built against one of the vaasals of the temple. Edhedholaam demolish panranga, idha konjam demolish panna koodadha??

Of course, I've not even covered 5% of the place. But this trip will be in my memory for long...


P.S.: I went on June 1st and was very happy to see shining heads on two-wheelers en route to railway station. But when I came back, I see them behind the scooters :-/