Seven temples and a fort

Day Five - 8th February 2019

A fort, seven temples, but no tile factory

We arranged, through the hotel,  a taxi to take us on a tour of the area.  Our first stop was at Thirumayam Fort.  Thereafter, keeping track of which temple was which proved difficult.

Located around 7 miles from Nethampatti, Thirumayam is a historic village, its central attractions being the Thirumayam Fort and the temples of Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu. The Thirumayam Fort, situated atop a hill, was built in 1687 AD by Sethupathi Vijaya Ragunatha Thevar, the ruler of Ramanathapuram. Although the fort has been partially destroyed due to weathering, the entrance to the fort is still intact and lies about 1 km south of the remaining fort. The relics of a courtyard with pillared corridors and sculptures carved out on them can be seen within the fort. This is also the site of one of the famous 'butter balls', the other being in Mahabalipuram.

The land around this area is incredibly flat.  There was a haze, so it was difficult to see far distances, but the view from the top is worth the climb.

We moved on to the first of our temples.  This was an amazing experience.  I had come to Tamil Nadu expecting to see tall highly decorated towers, but not the horses.  Our driver had to receive instruction from a villager to find his way to Karaimal Azakakar Ayyanar temple, in Kanadukathan, which was off the beaten track.  There was a small tour bus already there, but they soon left on their hectic itinerary, and we were again on our own, apart from the guardians.

Read more on 'horse temples' >>>

Heading for our next temple, we passed through an 'illegal' village, where the houses were built without permission, and their owners pay no taxes. Some of these were gated, and looked very smart. But the rubbish lying around was sad to behold. We also stopped in Kadiapatti, at a large mansion, now hotel, called Chidlambra Vilas (one l), with equally large neighbours.  If it had any residents, there were sign of them, and the car park was empty. The house that struck me most was the dilapidated former (I hope it was former) hospital. The village is famous as a treatment centre for jaundice, but not in here, I think.

Chidlambra Vilas...

Former hospital

Read more on merchants' mansions >>>

We called into Sowntharanayagi Temple, near Panagudi with it's impressive guardians, kept in the dark, and for it's floor and ceiling decor.

Images floor guardians to follow

Next, we visited Sathaiya Puranai Pushkalai Samaetha Sridharma Sathya Temple is a Hindu temple close to Kadiapatti.

   

It was memorable not just because of the large statues of elephants, horses and people outside the courtyard, but also for the many statues around the buildings inside.

We came across a small group of children, and asked one of the parents if we could photograph them. This was agreed, but not til the whole extended family had been summoned from various corners of the temple.  Memo to self - Take a notebook to record email addresses to send photographs on.

We moved on, and pulled into a rather unimpressive place, which was to provide us with a surprise.  By now, we were accustomed to horses and elephants, but the small temple in Kothanamgolan, and this had its horses, there were also many broken terracotta dolls. 

At the time, we were told that these were for children who died young. However, it seems that these are prayer requests, or acknowledgements of prayers fulfilled for the birth of a child, an ill child, and other reasons.  This rather sad pile of broken dolls lay between two horses. We saw no new ones, so presumably all prayers have been fulfilled. Or not?

Prayer dolls

When we arrived at the Pillaiyarpatti Temple, located in Tiruppathur Taluk, 16km from Karaikudi, a small crowd was gathering outside awaiting its opening at 11am.  Clearly a busy place at times, there were queuing aisles, but there were only about 50 of us and we were soon absorbed into the building.  No photography is allowed in this temple, which  is an ancient rock-cut cave shrine dedicated to Lord Ganesha. 

   

The presiding deity of the temple is Karpaka Vinayakar. In the cave temple, there are rock cut images of Siva and other gods as well as several shrines. The Āgama texts found on stone inscriptions in the temple help to date the temple between the years 1091 and 1238 BC.

Vinayagar’s trunk is curved at the right side (Valampuri Vinayagar) which is unique feature. There are other deities in this temple such as goddess Karthiyayini (who arrange marriages), Nagalingam (who gifts offspring), Pasupatheeswarar (who showers all wealth).

Our next stop seemed out of keeping with other temples we visited as this was on a hill, Kundrakudi. The Shangmughanathar temple is reached by curiously painted stair, and is at points covered with deposits of salt - a gift to the gods.

On our way out, we were greeted, and for a consideration, blessed by an elephant.

Stairway to heaven?	Carved footsteps on the stairs	Elephant blessing

Our seventh and last temple of the day was in Athangudi, a village famous for its tile making. However, our driver merely pointed at 'tile washing' and we drove through and out to Jeyangonda Soleeshwarar Temple, noted, we were told, for it being the home of the only species of a particular type of banana tree. This we dutifully admired, along with a wall carving depicting it many years ago.

Door to temple	Jeyangonda Soleeshwarar Temple	Banana tree

By now, we were ready for lunch, and experienced a delicious thalii meal, served on a banana leaf.

One of the disadvantages of not pre-booking transport is the requirement to do so, and as we were moving to Kollam two days later, we called in at Chettinad Junction station. The original plan had been to travel by day, watching the countryside roll passed, but we now opted for a sleeper, but Chettinad was unable to provide that, so we went on to the main town, Karaikudi.  With our drivers help (or not?), we booked sleeper tickets from Madurai to Kollam.  Perhaps there was a clue as to what was to come in the price - Rs500, for a 10 hour journey.

We paid Rs3,000 for the car and driver for the day, travelling though small villages, seeing markets, mansions and life in rural Tamil Nadu.  A memorable day - even if I have difficult remembering which temple was which!.

There were a few more guests in the hotel this evening, all Indian who were attending a wedding.  We made our arrangements for our journey the next day to Madurai, and retired after another enjoyable meal.

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