Monday, October 16, 2006

Srivilliputtur


One of my uncles who is at Virudhunagar, Tamil Nadu tried his best to persuade me to visit him once since I had not been to his place after I moved back to India from the US. Like many other of my relatives, he must have lost all hopes and stopped calling me. He must have been dumb-founded, when suddenly I called him up to ask if he will be free for Vijaya Dussami holidays which fell on a Monday.

He said "I will make myself free! How long will you stay here?"
"One day..hee hee"
"ONE DAY!.....well....I should be happy that are even visiting me"
"hee hee"

Before I knew, I booked my tickets for one hectic train journey! Boy, what a journey it was!
My ticket (yes! Indian railways allow to buy tickets online..no hassle..Kudos!) read
Hyderabad - Chennai central Dep. (Dep Sep 28 Arrival at 6:00am)
Chennai Egmore- Virudhurnagar (DEP Sep 29 7:30) (Arrival Sep 30 5:00PM)

Virudhunagar to chennai Dep. Oct.1 7:30 PM Arraival Oct 2 6.00 AM
Chennai to Hyderabad Dep Oct 2 6.00PM Arrival 8:30 AM

It was an journey full of emotions..feel-good factor when I helped a blind, poor dude to an auto-stand and paid for his auto expenses..ab-crunching light moments when I met spanish unmarried "husband-wife" in Guruvayur express and their India-tour stories....irritation when I met Chennai-hating morons from Tuitorin. One jouney that I will pay a fortune to go through once again. But the best experience of the journey was when I visited Rangamannar (Lord Ranganathar in full costumes of a king when he "lands" at Srivilliputtur with Lord Garuda as the flight to marry Andal)temple at Srivilliputtur, about an hour from Virudhunagar.

One of the 108 divyadesams of Vishnu, it has its own "you-can-see-it-nowhere-else"
  • Only temple in the whole world where you will see Lord Garuda, standing beside Lord Rangamannar, instead of in front of him
  • Only temple where there is a well with in within temple, (not with in the outer wall, but with in the actual temple's main building, right outside the sanctum-sanctorum, right by the Hundi!)
  • It is the only temple which has a statue of lord krinsha with two shoulders and four hands, one pair hold the Sargni (shakam) and sudarshana cakram, and the other pair busy playing his flute. (Oh! the temple's art form are simply unmatched!)
  • Only place where Lord Ranganathar appears with all his five weapons (a little hard to believe, but thats what the temple in-charge said!)
These are just the uniqueness. What are the other Unique Selling Points?
  • All too familiar gopuram in Tamil Nadu's emblem is the gopuram of this temple! The largest until Rajagopuram of Srirangam was built!
  • This is the birth place of the famous Andal, the only female Azhwar who have translated Vedas into Tamil (and who are the root-cause for Vishnavism)!
  • The only temple that I have seen so far, that has the main sannidhi in the first floor rather than ground-floor!
  • The inner walls of the temple is adorned using the remains of the temples "Ter" or the car that got burned in a fire mishap (as narrated by my much relieved uncle..who finally got to see me at his place!)
  • If you are a connoissueur, this place is very well known for its milk sweet. Some that I couldn't personally endorse since that day all the milk sweet went out of stock.
In a nutshell, the most visit I have ever made so far!

14 comments:

Vanjula said...

yeah, I have been there once and was it awesome. Did you get to go to ThiruThankal nearby which is the only temple in the world where the Thayar is in standing position with Her feet showing?

And then Paal kova is awesome. Did you know that on Thiruvadi puram Andaal is beside Vada Bhadra Sayee the Lord in the terrace and not Rangamannar? Vada Bhadra Sayee is the sung Lord. And that well was the one where Thayar used to see Herself dress up??

It is a beautiful place!!

Anonymous said...

nice narrative style... somtime somday will make it to Villiputtur Lagey raho man!!

Anonymous said...

dear bhadri

u may also visit vishnu kanchi to see the splendor of the great LORD VARADA(remember garuda sevai if u have seen in tv) in the terrace/in madam in tamil,where his benevolence is showered to all.
ur srivilliputtur visit was good...pl continue- sundar

Anonymous said...

Dude,
u shud write more often please.
Virudhunagar, my native place. It feels nice that someone mentions that place in blog world.

srivilliputhur is a very special place in deed - both for the temple as well for their paalkova :)

And regarding the ist foor funda, if i am not wrong, even the varadharajaperumal temple in kanchi has something similiar.

Badhri said...

Lol!,
Well, it feels nice to me too that someone unknown to me in the blog world has the time to encourage my writing!

I know I have to write more. I have the reasons too. What I don't find is the time (I do have a lot of lazy time periods everyday from where I can squeeze some.

Oh did I mention that it is the only place or "its the only place I have seen" that has the first floor funda?

I do have something up my sleeve. And I do think I will find some time in the near future too! Keep visitng dude! :)

Badhri said...

Ram,
I would have guessed that you already would have gone, given that you are religiously inclined (though none can beat vatsa! :) )

Well you should man, its an awesome place. If you do, take the train! Its double the fun to go through Trichy!

Hi anon,
Thanks for visiting, I am looking forward to visiting any temple for that matter. What I lack is proper planning and the time to either plan or visit! :)

Unknown said...

After reading your blog and all about Sri Villiputtur temple, we woudl like to visit that temple.

Can you please provide the temple timings, any hotels in Srivilliputtur to stay along with our 6 months kid.

Please let me know...expectinga reply ASAP.

Badhri said...

Hi mlgblog,
Sorry for not responding ASAP. Hope this helps. I lifted it off another blog! :)
http://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2008/02/108-divya-desam-srivilliputhur-aandal.html

Deity : Rangamannar Sleeping Posture East Facing
Goddess : Aandal
Paasurams : PeriAzhvaar 1(549) and Aandal 1(133)

Temple timing : 630am –12noon and 4pm-9pm
Contact : Bala Mukunda Araiyar @ 94438 67345

Place to Stay : Best to stay in Madurai about 70 kms from here

College House(Rs. 300-500), Hotel Supreme/Madurai Residency(Rs. 1000+)
Madurai Junction Retiring Room( Rs. 250-Rs.600)

Festivals : Round the year

Bus services
Srivilliputhur is about 90 kms from Tirunelveli, about 70 kms from Madurai and 80 kms from Tenkasi.

Frequent buses from Tirunelveli via Sankaran Koil-Rajapalayam (2 hours). From Madurai, one can take the Tenkasi-Courtallam bus. Buses ply every 10-15 minutes.

By Train
One can also reach Srivilliputhur by train. Chennai- Tenkasi Podhigai Express runs daily and reaches Srivilliputhur at around 630am

Anonymous said...

hey badhri....
i feel nostalgic as i read this blog of yours...my parents are from srivilliputtur , now settled in chennai...i used to go there every year when i was a kid...but since the time i joined the army i 've never been there...now after reading this article i feel like going there...to the temple and to eat palkova! though its not possible right now as i am serving in a Godforsaken place thousands of kilometres away...i hope to be there some time... the next time around...ciao...

k.veeramuni said...

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இப்படிக்கு
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vineshkumar said...
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Sundar Krishna said...

Hello, we are leaving from Chennai to Srivilliputtur by train on Dec 11th and planning to stay in Srivilliputtur as we are planning to visit Sathuragiri and Andal temple in the Weekend.

Please let me know the hotels in Srivilliputtur for a night's stay.

Thanks,
Sundar Krishna

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Hai Baji said...
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