Sights in Tamil Nadu
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Sri Meenakshi Temple
The Sri Meenakshi Temple is the abode of the triple-breasted, fish-eyed Goddess Meenakshi Amman (‘fish-eyed’ is an adjective for perfect eyes in classical Tamil poetry), is considered by many to be the height of South Indian temple architecture, as vital to the aesthetic heritage of this region as the Taj Mahal is to North India. It’s not so much a temple as a 6-hectare complex enclosed by 12 gopurams, the highest of which towers 52m over Madurai, and all of which are carved with a staggering array of gods, goddesses, demons and heroes.
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Doddabetta Lookout
This is it: the highest point (2633m) of the Nilgiris and one of the best viewpoints around, assuming, as usual, the day is clear. It’s about 10km out of town; go early for better chances of a mist-free view. Any Kotagiri buses will drop you here.
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Rock Fort Temple
The Rock Fort Temple, perched 83m high on a massive outcrop, lords over Trichy with stony arrogance. The ancient rock was first hewn by religious-minded Pallavas, who cut small cave temples into the southern face, but it was the war-savvy Nayaks who later made strategic use of the naturally fortified position. There are two main temples: Sri Thayumanaswamy Temple, halfway to the top (there may be some bats snoozing in the ceiling), and VinayakaTemple, at the summit, dedicated to Ganesh. There are 437 stone-cut steps to climb, and the hike is worth the effort – the view is wonderful, with eagles wheeling beneath and Trichy sprawling all around into the greater Cauvery. Non…
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Tirumalai Nayak Palace
What the Meenakshi Temple is to Nayak religious architecture, the Tirumalai palace is to the secular. Unfortunately it’s in a state of rot today, but the shell that remains is still impressive. The main event is the entrance gate, main hall and Natakasala (Dance Hall), with their faded yellow plasterwork, lion and makara (crocodile-elephant creature) sculptures and a series of fabulous murals that hints at the opulence the Nayak rulers once enjoyed. The rectangular courtyard, 75m by 52m, is known as Swargavilasa (Celestial Pavilion), and while time has taken its toll, you still get the sense the plaza fully deserved the name. The Indo-Saracenic palace was built in 1636 …
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Arjuna's Penance
This relief carving on the face of a huge rock depicts animals, deities and other semidivine creatures as well as fables from the Hindu Panchatantra books. The panel (30m x 12m) is divided by a huge perpendicular fissure that's skilfully encompassed into the sculpture; originally, water, representing the Ganges, flowed down it.
It's one of the most convincing and unpretentious rock carvings in India, with the main relief showing Shiva standing with a wizened Arjuna, balanced on one leg in a state of penance. A guide can be useful to help explain the reliefs.
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Thread Garden
Your appreciation of the Thread Garden rests on your love of irony and kitsch. If that threshold is low, you’ll be disappointed. If it’s decent, you may, if you’re in a good mood, enjoy the ‘miracle’ (official description and just slight hyperbole) that is 150 species of ‘plants’ from around the world meticulously re-created using ‘hand-wound’ thread. The technique was perfected by Keralan artist Anthony Joseph and the work took 50 craftspeople 12 years to complete, which is either very impressive or kinda sad.
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Vivekananda House
The Vivekananda House is interesting not only for the displays on the famous ‘wandering monk’, but also for the semicircular structure in which it’s housed. Swami Vivekananda stayed here briefly in 1897 and preached his ascetic philosophy to adoring crowds. The museum houses a collection of photographs and memorabilia from the swami’s life, a gallery of religious historical paintings and the ‘meditation room’ where Vivekananda stayed. Free one-hour meditation classes are held on Wednesday nights at 7pm.
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Mahishamardini Mandapam
Scenes from the Puranas (Sanskrit stories dating from the 5th century AD) are depicted on the mandapam with the sculpture of the goddess Durga considered one of the finest.
Above the mandapam are the remains of the 8th-century Olakkannesvara Temple, and spectacular views of Mamallapuram. Photography is forbidden here for 'security reasons' - there's a nuclear power station a few kilometres south.
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San Thome Cathedral
Originally built by the Portuguese in 1504, then rebuilt in neo-Gothic style in 1893, San Thome Cathedral is a soaring Roman Catholic church between Kapaleeshwarar Temple and Marina Beach. In the basement is a chapel housing the tomb of St Thomas the Apostle (Doubting Thomas), who it is said brought Christianity to the subcontinent in the 1st century.
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Airatesvara Temple
Only 4km west of Kumbakonam in the village of Dharasuram, the Airatesvara Temple, constructed by Rajaraja II (1146–63), is a superb example of 12th-century Chola architecture. Fronted by columns overflowing with miniature sculptures, the temple art depicts, among other things, Shiva in the rare incarnation as Kankalamurti, the mendicant.
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Five Rathas
Carved from single pieces of rock, the Five Rathas are low-laying monoliths that huddle in more ancient subtlety than grandeur. Each temple is dedicated to a Hindu god and named for one of the Pandavas, the five hero-brothers of the epic Mahabharata, plus their common wife, Draupadi.
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Krishna's Butter Ball
Just north of the Ganesh Ratha is a huge boulder known as Krishna's Butter Ball. Immovable, but apparently balancing precariously, it's a favourite photo opportunity.
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Shore Temple
Standing like a magnificent fist of rock-cut elegance overlooking the sea, the Shore Temple symbolises the heights of Pallava architecture and the maritime ambitions of the Pallava kings. Its small size belies its excellent proportion and the supreme quality of the carvings, many of which have been eroded into vaguely Impressionist embellishments. Originally constructed in the 7th century, it was later rebuilt by Narasimhavarman II and houses two central shrines to Shiva. The layout is meant to resemble the perfect cosmic body, with the head and heart located over the spire that dominates the structure. Facing east and west, the original linga (phallic images of Shiva) ca…
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Relief carving
As if we couldn’t wax more poetic on Mamallapuram’s stonework, along comes this relief carving, one of the greatest of its age and certainly one of the most convincing and unpretentious works of ancient art in India. Inscribed into a huge boulder, the penance bursts with scenes of Hindu myth (notice the nagas, or snake-beings, that descend a cleft once filled with water, meant to represent the Ganges) and everyday vignettes of South Indian life. A herd of elephants marches under armies of angels, while Arjuna performs self-mortification so he can be granted Shiva’s most powerful weapon, the god-slaying Pasupata. In Hinduism, ‘penance’ does not mean suffering that eras…
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Tribal Research Centre Museum
It’s hard to say why you should love this museum more: for its decently executed exhibits on Nilgiri and Andaman tribal groups, or the decomposing corpses of badly stuffed local wildlife, including a rotting mongoose that just arrived from hell’s deepest pit and a ‘python’ apparently made from several socks, a blanket and those googly eyes you buy at the local crafts store. OK: seriously, the artefacts are fantastic – you may never get the chance to hold a Stone Age bow in your life again – and descriptions of the tribes are good, if written by anthropologists with no filter from academia to normal English. The guides are either researchers who can give you an enthusias…
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Temple Complex
Even if you’re feeling templed-out, this temple complex is going to knock your socks off. Located about 3km north of the Rock Fort, it feels more like a self-enclosed city than a house of worship, and in truth, that’s the idea: entering this temple’s inner sanctum requires passing through seven gopuram (the largest is 73m high). Inside the fourth wall is a kiosk where you can buy a ticket (Rs10) and climb the wall for a semi-panoramic view of the complex that delineates levels of existence and consciousness. You’ll proceed past rings of beggars, merchants and Brahmins, then plazas of devas (angels) and minor deities before reaching the inner chamber, dedicated to …
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Ramanathaswamy Temple
When Rama decided to worship Shiva, he figured he’d need a lingam to do the thing properly. Being a God, he sent a flying monkey to find the biggest lingam around – in this case, a Himalayan mountain. But the monkey took too long, so Rama’s wife Sita made a simple lingam of sand, which Shiva approved of, and which is enshrined today in the centre of this temple. Besides housing the world’s holiest sand-mound, the structure is notable for its horizon-stretching thousand-pillar halls and 22 theerthams (tanks), which pilgrims are expected to bathe in and drink from. The number of theerthams corresponds with the number of arrows in Rama’s quiver, which he used to gene…
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Crocodile Bank
One of the best institutions of its kind in India, Crocodile Bank, 40km south of Chennai, is a fascinating peek into a world of reptiles culled from your best dinosaur dreams, and an incredible conservation trust to boot. The Bank does crucial work towards protecting the critically endangered gharial, an enormous but harmless (to humans) species of crocodilian with a long, thin nose that feeds on fish. There are thousands of other reptiles here, including the Indian mugger and saltwater crocs of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. If you’ve got an open evening on the weekend, come for the night safari, when you can shine a flashlight over the water and catch the staring ey…
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Theosophical Society
Between the Adyar River and the coast, the 100 hectares of the Theosophical Society provide one of the few peaceful retreats from the city. The sprawling grounds contain a church, mosque, Buddhist shrine and Hindu temple. There’s a huge variety of native and introduced trees, including a famed 400-year-old banyan tree whose branches offer reprieving shade for over 40,000 sq ft. The Adyar Library here has an immense collection of books on religion and philosophy, from thousand-year-old Buddhist scrolls to intricate, handmade 19th-century bibles. If you’re interested in the Theosophical Society’s philosophy, call into the public relations office and chat with the director…
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Nataraja Temple
The legend goes: one day, in a nearby forest, Shiva and Kali got into a dance-off that was judged by the assembled gods. Shiva finished his routine with a high kick to the head that Kali could not duplicate and won the title Nataraja, or Lord of the Dance. It is in this form he is worshipped at this great Shiva temple, which draws a regular stream of pilgrims and visitors. The region was a Chola capital from 907 to 1310 and the temple was erected during the later time of the administration, although local guides claim some of the complex was built by the Pallavas in the 6th century. The high-walled 22-hectare complex has four towering gopurams decked out in schizophrenic …
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DakshinaChitra
DakshinaChitra is a jumble of open-air museum, preserved village and artisan workshops – a well-worth-it stop (especially for the kids) for learning about the Dravidian crafts of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Of special note are 17 refurbished heritage houses and recreated village-scapes. DakshinaChitra means ‘A Picture of the South’, which is essentially what you’re provided via local pottery, silk-weaving, puppet-building and basket-making workshops, traditional theatre performances and art studios. A delightfully cool 12-room guest house is in the grounds, though you might want to check your visit is not coinciding with a school overnight ex…
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St Stephen’s Church
Perched above the town centre, the immaculate St Stephen’s Church, built in 1829, is the oldest church in the Nilgiris. Throughout its history, St Stephens has racially shifted from hosting an exclusively British congregation to an Anglo-Indian orphanage to falling under the auspices of the Church of South India. Look out for lovely stained glass, huge wooden beams hauled by elephant from the palace of Tipu Sultan some 120km away, and the sometimes kitschy, sometimes touching, slabs and plaques donated by colonial-era churchgoers. In the quiet, overgrown cemetery you’ll find headstones commemorating many an Ooty Brit, including the wife and daughter of John Sullivan, th…
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Temple
At Gangakondacholapuram, 35km north of Kumbakonam, you’ll find a Shiva temple that’s only slightly smaller than Thanjavur’s Brihadishwara Temple; many believe the quality of the sculpture here is superior to its sister structure. While that’s a subjective opinion, the temple, built by Rajendrea I (son of Rajaraja I, builder of Brihadishwara) does represent a latter, somewhat more developed phase of Chola art. Note the 49m-tall vimana (tower) that tops the temple; its elegant up-sloping curves stand in stark contrast to the Brihadishwara’s angular lines, and as a result the Gangakondacholapuram is often described as the feminine counterpart to the Thanjavur edifice…
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Devarajaswami Temple
Dedicated to Vishnu, this enormous monument was built by the Vijayanagars and is among the most impressive of Kanchipuram’s temples. It has a beautifully sculptured ‘1000-pillared’ hall (only 96 of the original 1000 remain) as well as a marriage hall commemorating the wedding of Vishnu and Lakshmi. One of the temple’s most notable features is a huge chain carved from a single piece of stone which can be seen at each corner of the mandapam. The temple is supposedly the place to go to receive cures from lizard-related illnesses thanks to twin silver and gold-plated reptiles that crawl over the temple ceiling, where they devour platinum cockroaches (kidding).
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Kamaraj Memorial
Just next to the Gandhi memorial is this shrine to K Kamaraj, known as ‘the Gandhi of the South’. One of the most powerful politicians of post-independence India, Kamaraj held the chief ministership of both Madras State and latter-day Tamil Nadu, and was instrumental in bringing Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi into the prime minister’s seat. You can also thank the Tamil leader for school lunch, since he instituted the first free ones in Tamil Nadu in 1956. Unfortunately, the shrine is nothing but a collection of dusty blown-up photographs with barely any space given to context or explanation.
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