Belur and Halibid

Belur – Chennakesava Temple

In the earlier post I had put my experience in Chikmangalur, but while going to Chikmangalur we also visited Belur Chennakesava temple. The temple is simply extraordinary, though the architecture was build and developed in soapstone but making those magnificent structures is one of the best I should say. For each statue they give great amount of details like ornaments, style they pose etc are simply great. Rather than telling them in words it is good to see some the pictures. 

The temple has many statue and there are no identical statues, each of them is unique. There are about 106 elephants in which each of them show different mood and position. 

Some statue which I liked a most are the Narashima statue it shows the anger of lort vishnu in that avatar. Lord Krishna statue with floot is another unique structure which shows the how the Krishna completely involved in floot playing and the girls around krishna watching them. 

This temple is built during 1117 CE by Hoysala king Vishnuvardhana, the temple shows predominantly Karnataka Dravidian structure.

Halebidu – Hoysaleswara temple

This temple in Halebidu is something we visited when our way back to Bangalore to Chikmagalur. It has the similar structure and design pattern look the same like the Belur temple. This temple is dedicated to Hindu God Siva. Great design and really wonderful architecture around the temple. The temple is now very cleanly maintained and it is been announced as world heritage center. 

Also when I was reading an article recently by Lakshmi Sharath in yahoo life style where I see she gave a great insight on this temple. 

In the lost kingdom of Dwarasamudra

You would get more information and also some more cool snaps in the above link. 

Chennai Kapaleeswarar temple, Mylapore

This one is a very famous Siva temple in Chennai located in a place called Mylapore. The place is called mylapore because parvathi(lord shiva wife) on seeing a peacock dancing she forgot herself when she was in concert with shiva. Lord Siva got angry and cursed Parvathi for her behavior and to become a pea hen. After many years, she again joined with Lord shiva. Pea hen is called as Mylai in tamil, so the name Mylapore is used for this location in Chennai. Godness Parvathi is called as karpagavalli here in Mylapore. This place is also called as vedapuri. There is no proper evidence of when the temple was constructed and whose period it was built. The temple entrance has a big gopura and along with that there are also other three gopuras around the temple. Inside the temple there are separate gopuras for each subramanyia, ganesha, saani and also for navagragha. Almost, we visit every weekend to this temple with the family and while returning we will have breakfast in Hotel Saravana bavan. The temple also got a big pond and the water is almost around the year available in this pond.

You can see a lot Brahmin religion people in this area and they directly or indirectly do service to this temple. This temple is very near to Santhome beach. Those who have an idea to visit the temple can also visit the beach. I see lots of foreigners keep visiting this temple and this temple is always kept clean and has good car parking facility. You can also go to Giri trading shop to have look of the traditional Pooja items and other goodies.

Madurai

                                           Madurai Meenashi Temple Main Gopura

Madurai is the place in Tamil Nadu. The very oldest city and also called city of jasmine. Jasmine is very famous in Madurai and you could see these flowers very cheap here. Madurai malli they call in south India. The garland made out of Jasmine is very famous here.

 Very Famous Madurai Malli (Jasmine)

Madurai lies in the beds of Vaigai River. Also, it is almost 2600 years old and was capital of southern India during the rule of pandiyas. You can also say Tamil is been brought up by this city, since so many Tamil sangam has happened in Madurai. Tamil sangam is a kind of gathering of tamil literates in order to extend the reach of Tamil. 

Madurai is well connected via Road, Rail and also through Air. There are daily connecting flights from Chennai to Madurai. When it comes to tourism in Madurai there are so many places which are very popular over here. A few of them are 

Madurai Meenakshi-amman Temple, 

Long Corider inside temple

Thirumalai nayakar mahal, 

Thiruparamkundaram murugan temple, 

Azhagar kovil etc. 

Other than this Madurai is also near to 

Kodaikanal, Thekkady, Coutrallam (kutrallam) and Rameshwaram. 

The Palani hill is one famous Subramanya temple which is just 130 Kms far from Madurai. This is a very popular temple in Tamil Nadu and has got very godly excellence. When I saw about Madurai it is must that I should give details about the Meenakshi Amman Temple. This temple is one such excellence in the architecture of Pandiyas. Such a huge temple off course and huge 12 vimanams (Gopurams), according to hindu mythology Lord Siva in the form of Sundarar came to Marry Parvathi (Meenakshi). This event of marriage was being done by Lord Vishnu brother of Meenakshi. Even today this festival is been taking place in Madurai and been called as Chithirai Thiruvizha or Azhakar Thiruvizha. 

Golden Flower lake inside temple

Currently the temple is renovated nicely and the street shops are evacuated from this place. Thanks for Tamil Nadu government for doing this. Now look and the divine experience is being maintained properly. This temple also participated in the recent event for wonders of the world. A very huge temple spread around 48 acres of land in center of the city. 

Karnataka Heritage and Culture tour

I always wanted to help people by providing a lot of information about the heritage tour in Karnataka. There are so many places when it comes to heritage and cultural tour in Karnataka. A few which I loved a lot are Mysore, Hampi, Hassan, Badami and even Bangalore.

Mysore

My first view is about Mysore, which is a very close city to Bangalore and can able to cover in a day from Bangalore. There are lot of tourist attractions like Brindavan gardens, Chamundi hills, Cauvery enriched falls like Srirangapatna, Shivanasamudra falls, Tipu sultan fort, and the great Mysore palace. 

Hampi

The place that nobody can even image in dreams, the Vijayanagar Empire’s prosperity is still been maintained here. You can see the art and architecture of the Vijayanagar Empire is unexplained. Vitthal Temple, lotus stay and Queen Bath are nice places to be visited. The big statue of Narashima pose of lord Vishnu was the excellent creativity. 

Hassan

Belur and Helebid are the tourist places where you can see the Chennakeswara temple and Hoysaleswara temple. 

Badami

Ajhole and the famous Pattadakkal have so many temples built by Chaulakyas. You may require more than two to three days going around these places.

Visit to these places and know more about the oldest culture of India.

Thanjavur or Tanjore

This year beginning, I had visited Thanjavur (Tanjore) just to see the beauty of the Peruvudaiyar temple or Brihadeeswarar temple. I had been to this temple even before but now my visit was little different, it is because this time when I went to this temple I have already finished reading the novel Ponniyin selvan by Kalki. The novel narrates the beauty of thanjavur and about great king Raja Raja Cholan. The novel portraits the king, the kingdom and the beauty of the places, every episode takes us to great mood. After reading this novel, I had planned to go Thanjavur, thinking how the great king Raja Raja Cholan could manage to built such a great temple with huge Bull, the huge lingam (Form of Lord shiva being worshipped in Tamilnadu, India) and the huge raja gopura. The temple itself tells us how the Chola’s were powerful in wealth and in architecture.

The entrance of the temple has the great view of two gopura’s. It is a very good science, when you enter in to the Gopura, you would feel the Air breeze which is very pleasant. Around the temple there is a huge wall, like you see in other forts and a water cannel. It is been said that the water in the cannel was filled with crocodiles in olden times to prevent the anonymous people entering in to the temple premises. The first two gopura which in general people used to enter the temple has the five storied structure. After you cross these you could see the great view of the temple, the Nandi (Bull) and along with those small shrines here and there around the temple. The raja gopura is hallowing in the center and around gopura you could see the stories depicted in stone sculptures about Lord Shiva (Siva). You can also see the writings in the temple tell about the real life incidents during the Chola’s period. The temple itself has a great ambiance inside and the recent maintenance of the park and the rework of the damaged sculptures happening daily to keep the temple’s look beauty. There were so many other country (foreigners) visitors who visit the temple and the museum near by. 

LORD Brahadeeswarar - Lord Shiva form - Thanjavur or Tanjore , Tamil Nadu, South India

The Nandhi (Bull) 

The temple views from Inside

The front entrance gopuras

The very famous thanjavur dolls and the Ruthratcham shops outside the temple

The readings and the sculptures!!!!!!

Thiruvannamalai

This is about Thiruvannamalai, Arunachaleswarar temple in Tamil Nadu. My first visit to this temple is when I was 7 or 8 years old. I had not felt the great pleasure in that temple in that visit. But later I visited the temple when I was 24; the real beauty of the temple was an unexplained pleasure. The whole temple is like a great entrance of a beautiful solid rock mountain. When you immediately enter in to the temple you would find a great view of the temple along with the mountain behind. Any body enter the temple, would first have a great question how this beauty was made, such an unexplained divine experience. Words just cannot define the beauty of the temple. 

The architecture in and around the temple is excellent, you would find it very different from other temples with in Tamilnadu. 

Girivalam:

Girivalam is the unique feature of this temple. In general, Hindu’s worship the mountain in this place. The term Girivalam means (“Giri-Mountain” “Valam – Going around”) going around the big mountain. This has so many beliefs, like people those who don’t have a child would get baby soon and also people go around the mountain would get lot of good fortunes. People have to go by walking around the mountain which is around 14 Kms, also it is auspicious to go around the mountain on a full moon day.

When you go around this mountain you get an opportunity to see eight different lingams (form of lord shiva).

Indra Lingam, Agni Lingam, Yama Lingam, Niruthilingam, Varunalingam, Vayulingam, Kupera Lingam and Easanya Lingam. 

If you have a chance to visit this place, please do visit and let us know your comments..