@ Kanchipuram – day 1
Travelling for some 90 minutes from Chennai towards the South West direction,I reached the temple town of Kanchipuram.I have been wanting to visit my relatives there, but its been years since I last visted.And my cousin’s marriage was the perfect reason!!
The city greeted us with some slow moving plump goats in the middle of the highway. The animals always managed to feed on a lot of flowers from the road side shops.The presence of such huge number of temples naturally demanded flowers for god, and the animals never missed out chewing even fresh ones when the florist is caught napping.
Unexpectedly,finding a room to stay took longer than expected! The M.M lodge,Rama’s Cafe lodge,Heritage Inn,Aruna’s residency,ABK or AGS and most of the other Lodges ran out of rooms! Obvious ~ it was an auspicious day and lot of people were getting married.After hunting for a couple of hours,we nailed the SSK lodge and just managed to find a 10 X 6 ft room.In the process , I sneaked into one of the temples on the way. Almost every street has a temple,and one could hardly get away without finding one, for every 2 minutes of travel in the city.
This was the “Vaigunda Perumal koil”,housing lord vishnu in a 3-storeyed cell.As the following Picture indicates- Lord Vishnu is found in three postures -Sitting , Reclining and standing,the prominence of which I have still not understood.
The temple has lost most of its accuracy in art specially on the outer walls.Having been constructed 1300 years back,nature had slowly taken its toll.These are the pictures of the temple’s Western and Eastern wall.
The sculptures are no more sharp and could be JUST recognised and intepreted. The temple is now under the shield of ASI – the Archeological survey of India.Locals say the archeologists have done a fair deal of Brushing to vertically eject these sculptures out of the wall. The temple was built by Nandivarman – the pallava descendant who became a King at the Age of 12.It is this same guy who later died without any kids and Left the Whole Pallava Empire Kingless!!
Another interesting thing I noticed here,is the presence of a mosque adjacent to the temple.
Though, I could not find out when the mosque was built -its construction with Bricks suggests its been built recently,more importantly -Peacefully!
I spent the rest of the day,catching up with relatives and friends and this was the only one I could see.
Continue Reading …
Day 2 at Kanchipuram – KailasaNathar Temple
Day 2 at Kanchipuram – Jvarahareshwarar Temple
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Tags: Kanchipuram, koil, Perumal, temples
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