I left Chidambaram on the morning of the 31st, but first I paid a final visit to the huge Nataraja Temple. I got there about 7:30 and headed into the innermost courtyard. A cow and her calf were tied to the rail in front of the shrine to Shiva as Nataraja. A garland of flowers was entwined around the cow's horns. While I and a crowd of Indians watched, about four brahmin priests placed a thin white sheet on the back of the cow and tied a smaller one around the neck of the calf. More garlands of flowers were draped around the cow's horns and flower petals were dropped over both the cow and calf. A big blob of yellow paste was plopped on the hindquarters of each the cow and calf, with some red paste later dabbed in the centers of the yellow blobs. A priest brought out a plate of fire from the temple and waved it around the cow and calf several times. All this time the cow stood there placidly, while the calf was a bit more rambunctious. The ceremony over, the worshipers pressed forward to touch the hindquarters of the cow and calf and to gather a bit of the yellow and red paste and place it on their foreheads. The white sheets were removed and the cow and calf led out into the pillared hall and then into the courtyard beyond to an enclosure for cattle on the south side of the outer court. I followed them for a while. One guy eventually carried the skittish calf. On the way out, the cow crapped in the pillared hall, and the pile of sacred cow excrement was still there when I returned to the inner courtyard after following the cow and calf to their shed.
I spent about two hours in the temple, which was fairly crowded that morning. Among other things, I watched another ceremony at the Vishnu shrine and watched two brahmins sitting on the edge of one of the Shiva shrines tending a fire and pouring liquids into it while chanting.
I left Chidambaram at 10:30 on a bus first to Mayiladuthurai and then another from there to Kumbakonam, a trip of about 50 miles over less than two and a half hours. Kumbakonam is another relatively small city, southwest of Chidambaram with about 160,000 people and 18 temples. It took me almost an hour to find a hotel to my liking, finally settling for the one I had first passed up without checking it out. It turned out to be quite a nice one, for only 500 rupees, about eight dollars, a night.
At 4, when the temples opened, I headed first to the Nageshwara Swami Temple, started in 886 and finished early the next century. The colorful eastern gopura entry is later, with quite a few sex acts portrayed in the brightly painted sculpture on top. Inside is one of the earliest Chola temples. The Chola Kingdom, which had ruled this part of south India before the Pallavas, revived in the 9th century and ruled again until the 13th century, creating a great classical civilization. Hardly anyone was in the temple just after it opened. On the outer wall of the central temple are excellent Chola statues, although some are a little worn They seem to stand very languidly, not rigidly at all, looking out with half smiles. Another hall, built later, is designed sort of like a chariot, with carved wheels and painted statues of horses and elephants as if to pull it.
I spent about 45 minutes there and then walked to the nearby Sarangapani Temple, with a colorful entrance gopura about 150 feet high, again featuring sex acts. You hardly ever see those depicted, say, in the Vatican. Just inside the gopura entrance is a cow shed with cows with horns painted red. I saw a couple of worshipers bring in greens to feed them. The pillared hall just beyond the cow shed dates from the Nayaka era. The Nayakas were governors under the Vijayanagar Empire centered in Hampi, and ruled in their own right for about a century after the Empire fell to the Deccan sultans in 1565. This long pillared hall leads to the central temple, dating from the Chola period, raised on a plinth and built to resemble a sort of chariot. On two sides are wheels and horses and elephants carved out of stone as if pulling the temple. On the outer walls are fine statues. This temple is dedicated to Vishnu, and I could see into the inner sanctuary. I couldn't see Vishnu until a priest waved a plate of fire over him. He is recumbent and had linen draped over him, plus a silver headpiece and breastplate. I watched a few ceremonies here and there before leaving. West of the temple is a large tank of water.
From there I walked further west to the Kumbeshwara Temple, named, like the town, after a pot (kumba) that Shiva shattered with an arrow. The pot, originally atop Mount Meru in the Himalayas, had come to rest here after the great flood. The contents filled a couple of sacred tanks of water. Shiva used the pot shards and sand to build a lingam which is said to be in the sanctuary of the temple. Because the lingam is made of sand, it is never washed with water or any liquid. You approach this temple through an arcade of shops and at the entrance was an elephant with a painted forehead swaying back and forth, her necklace of bells jingling. Worshipers would offer her a coin or a bill, which she would grab with her trunk, place her trunk briefly on the head of the offeror as a blessing, and then give the money to her handler.
This temple is mainly 17th century, with interesting columns of yalis, those fanged lions, rearing up. It was just about dark now, but I hung around until past 7. Pujas were going on at different altars and I could go up to the inner sanctum and peer inside. I couldn't see much but the little lamps of fire. A group of women were singing as the priests conducted a ceremony at one altar.
The next morning about 7:30 I took an hour bus ride to Gangaikondacholapuram, about 25 miles north, passing a rather narrow river labeled the Cauvery (which breaks into many branches in the delta; I wonder why this very narrow branch is called the Cauvery) and later a very long bridge over a small stream that must swell during the monsoon. Gangakondacholapuram was the capital of the Chola King Rajendra I, who ruled from 1012 to 1044. The name means "the city of the Chola who conquered the Ganges," and Rajendra did lead a successful military expedition that reached the Ganges, unique for a southern Indian kingdom. Now nothing remains of his capital other than a village and a huge temple he built to rival his fathers in Thanjavur (Tanjore). These Chola temples do not have high gopuras, which became fashionable much later. Instead, they have towers called vimanas over the sanctuaries and the one at Gangaikondacholapuram rises to 180 feet high, visible as I approached on the bus.
The temple is in a high walled enclosure, with grass covering the courtyard. A huge nandi, perhaps 20 feet high, sits in front. A large plaster lion, symbol of the Cholas, faces the nandi to the side, doing it homage as the vehicle of Shiva. The temple is about 330 feet long and 130 feet wide, sitting on a high plinth with excellent Chola sculpture on the outside walls, though with scaffolding often in front of them. The higher levels of the vimana look possibly restored, and the eastern part of the temple, except the plinth, is supposed to have been rebuilt later. I walked into this dark pillared hall, and then into a smaller hall with doors to the north and south, and eventually reached the dark inner sanctum, with a lingam on a pedestal surround by lamps of fire. Outside the north door is a statue of what is thought to be Rajendra receiving a garland from Shiva with Parvati at his side. They comprise a beautiful group of statues, but framed by scaffolding.
I spent over two hours there, walking around the temple a couple of times and walking back and forth through the dark halls. It wasn't very crowded at first, but groups were showing up even before I left. I had some difficulty getting back to town. Buses were overfull and it was difficult to know which bus was going the way I wanted to go. Eventually, I figured it out and took a very crowded bus to a nearby small town and from there a bus, in which I even got a seat, back to Kumbakonam. I got back soon after 1, a much longer trip than going there.
When the temples in Kumbakonam opened at 4, I headed to the Ramaswamy Temple, from the Nayaka era, with magnificently carved pillars in the portico including figures of horses, gods and particularly big breasted, even for Indian temples, women. The temple was fairly quiet, with not much activity. Later I walked back to Kumbeshwara Temple and looked around some more, spending some time watching the elephant.
The next morning I got to the bus stand between 7 and 7:30 to get a bus to Darasuram, only three miles away on the outskirts of town. But I got on the wrong bus (the guy who told me it went to Darasuram later told me, "Actually, I'm new to this place.") and so hopped off and eventually walked back to the bus station and got the right bus. I got to Darasuram about 8:30 and then went to the wrong temple. Actually, it was a very nice temple, but not the main one. I looked around and kept wondering why the description in one of my guidebooks was off in some instances. It took me about an hour before figuring out that I may be in the wrong temple, but I did enjoy it.
The much larger Airavaeshvara Temple is just beyond the temple I had spent an hour in. It is the third of the great Chola temples, after the one in Thanjavur and the one in Gangaikondacholapuram. It was built a century later than the temple at Gangaikondacholapuram, by Rajaraja II, who ruled from 1146 to 1172. The temple is made of granite and sits inside a high wall enclosure, with arcades all along the inside of the outer walls and pillared halls at the corners. It is smaller than the other two great Chola temples, 75 feet wide and 210 feet long, with a 75 foot high vimana, but is exquisitely decorated. Friezes of musicians and dancers and other figures surround the base. Stairs leading up to the pillar covered plinth have stone railings of carved elephants. One elephant is ridden by a dwarf and has its trunk being eaten by a crocodile. On the sides of the temple, in niches, are beautiful black basalt statutes of the gods.
The pillared hall on the east has intricate carving on the pillars, of dancers, fighters and gods. The ceiling, too, is intricately carved. On the west wall of this hall are more black basalt figures of gods. Beyond that is a narrow hall without much decoration and then a chamber with statues of club wielding guardians before the inner sanctum with a lingam. A couple of priests hovered around and conducted short pujas for the worshipers. I walked all around and stayed until it closed at noon and then took a bus back to town. After lunch, during which I ate two parotas and was brought a free rice pudding desert by the friendly waiters, I spent the rest of the day resting and at an internet cafe.
I spent about two hours in the temple, which was fairly crowded that morning. Among other things, I watched another ceremony at the Vishnu shrine and watched two brahmins sitting on the edge of one of the Shiva shrines tending a fire and pouring liquids into it while chanting.
I left Chidambaram at 10:30 on a bus first to Mayiladuthurai and then another from there to Kumbakonam, a trip of about 50 miles over less than two and a half hours. Kumbakonam is another relatively small city, southwest of Chidambaram with about 160,000 people and 18 temples. It took me almost an hour to find a hotel to my liking, finally settling for the one I had first passed up without checking it out. It turned out to be quite a nice one, for only 500 rupees, about eight dollars, a night.
At 4, when the temples opened, I headed first to the Nageshwara Swami Temple, started in 886 and finished early the next century. The colorful eastern gopura entry is later, with quite a few sex acts portrayed in the brightly painted sculpture on top. Inside is one of the earliest Chola temples. The Chola Kingdom, which had ruled this part of south India before the Pallavas, revived in the 9th century and ruled again until the 13th century, creating a great classical civilization. Hardly anyone was in the temple just after it opened. On the outer wall of the central temple are excellent Chola statues, although some are a little worn They seem to stand very languidly, not rigidly at all, looking out with half smiles. Another hall, built later, is designed sort of like a chariot, with carved wheels and painted statues of horses and elephants as if to pull it.
I spent about 45 minutes there and then walked to the nearby Sarangapani Temple, with a colorful entrance gopura about 150 feet high, again featuring sex acts. You hardly ever see those depicted, say, in the Vatican. Just inside the gopura entrance is a cow shed with cows with horns painted red. I saw a couple of worshipers bring in greens to feed them. The pillared hall just beyond the cow shed dates from the Nayaka era. The Nayakas were governors under the Vijayanagar Empire centered in Hampi, and ruled in their own right for about a century after the Empire fell to the Deccan sultans in 1565. This long pillared hall leads to the central temple, dating from the Chola period, raised on a plinth and built to resemble a sort of chariot. On two sides are wheels and horses and elephants carved out of stone as if pulling the temple. On the outer walls are fine statues. This temple is dedicated to Vishnu, and I could see into the inner sanctuary. I couldn't see Vishnu until a priest waved a plate of fire over him. He is recumbent and had linen draped over him, plus a silver headpiece and breastplate. I watched a few ceremonies here and there before leaving. West of the temple is a large tank of water.
From there I walked further west to the Kumbeshwara Temple, named, like the town, after a pot (kumba) that Shiva shattered with an arrow. The pot, originally atop Mount Meru in the Himalayas, had come to rest here after the great flood. The contents filled a couple of sacred tanks of water. Shiva used the pot shards and sand to build a lingam which is said to be in the sanctuary of the temple. Because the lingam is made of sand, it is never washed with water or any liquid. You approach this temple through an arcade of shops and at the entrance was an elephant with a painted forehead swaying back and forth, her necklace of bells jingling. Worshipers would offer her a coin or a bill, which she would grab with her trunk, place her trunk briefly on the head of the offeror as a blessing, and then give the money to her handler.
This temple is mainly 17th century, with interesting columns of yalis, those fanged lions, rearing up. It was just about dark now, but I hung around until past 7. Pujas were going on at different altars and I could go up to the inner sanctum and peer inside. I couldn't see much but the little lamps of fire. A group of women were singing as the priests conducted a ceremony at one altar.
The next morning about 7:30 I took an hour bus ride to Gangaikondacholapuram, about 25 miles north, passing a rather narrow river labeled the Cauvery (which breaks into many branches in the delta; I wonder why this very narrow branch is called the Cauvery) and later a very long bridge over a small stream that must swell during the monsoon. Gangakondacholapuram was the capital of the Chola King Rajendra I, who ruled from 1012 to 1044. The name means "the city of the Chola who conquered the Ganges," and Rajendra did lead a successful military expedition that reached the Ganges, unique for a southern Indian kingdom. Now nothing remains of his capital other than a village and a huge temple he built to rival his fathers in Thanjavur (Tanjore). These Chola temples do not have high gopuras, which became fashionable much later. Instead, they have towers called vimanas over the sanctuaries and the one at Gangaikondacholapuram rises to 180 feet high, visible as I approached on the bus.
The temple is in a high walled enclosure, with grass covering the courtyard. A huge nandi, perhaps 20 feet high, sits in front. A large plaster lion, symbol of the Cholas, faces the nandi to the side, doing it homage as the vehicle of Shiva. The temple is about 330 feet long and 130 feet wide, sitting on a high plinth with excellent Chola sculpture on the outside walls, though with scaffolding often in front of them. The higher levels of the vimana look possibly restored, and the eastern part of the temple, except the plinth, is supposed to have been rebuilt later. I walked into this dark pillared hall, and then into a smaller hall with doors to the north and south, and eventually reached the dark inner sanctum, with a lingam on a pedestal surround by lamps of fire. Outside the north door is a statue of what is thought to be Rajendra receiving a garland from Shiva with Parvati at his side. They comprise a beautiful group of statues, but framed by scaffolding.
I spent over two hours there, walking around the temple a couple of times and walking back and forth through the dark halls. It wasn't very crowded at first, but groups were showing up even before I left. I had some difficulty getting back to town. Buses were overfull and it was difficult to know which bus was going the way I wanted to go. Eventually, I figured it out and took a very crowded bus to a nearby small town and from there a bus, in which I even got a seat, back to Kumbakonam. I got back soon after 1, a much longer trip than going there.
When the temples in Kumbakonam opened at 4, I headed to the Ramaswamy Temple, from the Nayaka era, with magnificently carved pillars in the portico including figures of horses, gods and particularly big breasted, even for Indian temples, women. The temple was fairly quiet, with not much activity. Later I walked back to Kumbeshwara Temple and looked around some more, spending some time watching the elephant.
The next morning I got to the bus stand between 7 and 7:30 to get a bus to Darasuram, only three miles away on the outskirts of town. But I got on the wrong bus (the guy who told me it went to Darasuram later told me, "Actually, I'm new to this place.") and so hopped off and eventually walked back to the bus station and got the right bus. I got to Darasuram about 8:30 and then went to the wrong temple. Actually, it was a very nice temple, but not the main one. I looked around and kept wondering why the description in one of my guidebooks was off in some instances. It took me about an hour before figuring out that I may be in the wrong temple, but I did enjoy it.
The much larger Airavaeshvara Temple is just beyond the temple I had spent an hour in. It is the third of the great Chola temples, after the one in Thanjavur and the one in Gangaikondacholapuram. It was built a century later than the temple at Gangaikondacholapuram, by Rajaraja II, who ruled from 1146 to 1172. The temple is made of granite and sits inside a high wall enclosure, with arcades all along the inside of the outer walls and pillared halls at the corners. It is smaller than the other two great Chola temples, 75 feet wide and 210 feet long, with a 75 foot high vimana, but is exquisitely decorated. Friezes of musicians and dancers and other figures surround the base. Stairs leading up to the pillar covered plinth have stone railings of carved elephants. One elephant is ridden by a dwarf and has its trunk being eaten by a crocodile. On the sides of the temple, in niches, are beautiful black basalt statutes of the gods.
The pillared hall on the east has intricate carving on the pillars, of dancers, fighters and gods. The ceiling, too, is intricately carved. On the west wall of this hall are more black basalt figures of gods. Beyond that is a narrow hall without much decoration and then a chamber with statues of club wielding guardians before the inner sanctum with a lingam. A couple of priests hovered around and conducted short pujas for the worshipers. I walked all around and stayed until it closed at noon and then took a bus back to town. After lunch, during which I ate two parotas and was brought a free rice pudding desert by the friendly waiters, I spent the rest of the day resting and at an internet cafe.
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