Weekend Darshan - 5

We(Me and Srivathsan) had a new comer this week in Prabhakar for our weekend darshan trip. The idea was to cover all the divya desams in and around Kancheepuram.

A detailed travelogue of our trip with some excellent photos is available here.

In my opinion the best way to visit all the temples in the shortest time would be in the following order. This is applicable if you take the Padappai-Walajah-Kancheepuram road.

1) Sri Varadarajar Perumal Temple
2) Thiruvekka - Sri Yathothakaari temple
3) Ashtabuyagaram(Ashtabujam)
4) Thiruvelukkai - better known as Yoga Narasimhar temple here
5) Thiruthanka - better known as Deepa Prakasar (or) Desikar temple
6) Sri Vaikunta Perumal temple
7) Sri Ulagalandha Perumal temple- It has four divya desams inside
- Thiru Ooragam (Ooragathaan)
- Thiru Neeragam (Neeragathaan)
- Thiru Kaaragam
- Thirukkaar Vaanam
8) Sri Kamakshi Amman temple - Thirukalavanoor is situated here
9) Thiru Pavala Vannan and Pachai Vanna Perumal Temple
10) Sri Ekambareswarar temple - Thiru Nilathingal Thundam is here
11) Thiru Padagam temple - Pandava thoodhar
12) Thiruputkuzhi - in Chennai - Vellore highway

So that completes all the divya desams in one stretch and one can take the highway to return back to Chennai.

All though Kancheepuram is very close to my birthplace(30 kms), in all these years I had never had the chance to visit such architecturally marvellous places. There are more beautiful places than the commercialised and popular ones like Kamatchi amman temple and Varadarajar temple.

In fact we came across a temple very close to Ekambareswarar temple called the Karagesuwarar temple, which is maintained by the Archeological Society of India. Probably the best we had seen so far. These are temples every art lover must visit atleast once in their life time. These temples just go to show what a rich, royal and contented life our forefathers lived.


Karagesuwarar temple



Kailasanathar Temple in Sodium vapour lighting

Other artistic marvels are Sri Vaikunta Perumal temple and Sri Kailasanathar temple, both maintained by ASI. One can even see the actual pigments used as for painting in Kailasanathar temple. We also came across a small temple called Therkirundha nakkar temple very close to Kamatchi Amman temple. This one dates back to 12th century. Once again ASI has done a great job in reclaiming it.

Therkirundha Nakkar Temple


A striking feature of Kancheepuram is that almost every street has a temple. We were lucky to have a good photographer(Prabhakar) with us. This is one good black and white photo that he came up with.