Srivilliputhur trip- Chapter three written on 28^th Dec.1917.

Day two-

We all went to Thiruthankal- which is an old cave temple in Srivilliputhur. Cave temples came before the granite ones in history of temple architecture. 1500 years ago…!

Part of the early scooped out temples of the Pandya times- pre Raja Raja! Of course more sections would have been added during following centuries. The hillock has one side Shiva temple, with some fantastic nayak carvings, and a Vishnu temple on the other side of the same hill, interconnected! The Vishnu had an imposing and beautifully decorated Chengamala thayar. Early shaivites and vaishnavites were apparently not at loggerheads!

                                          Vaidyanathaswamy temple with tank- view from road.

Our next stop was the   Nayak period (500 years ago) Vaidyanathaswamy temple in Srivilliputhur called Madavar Vilakam. This very huge and imposing Shiva temple, with its full tank, has Vaidyanathaswamy as main deity, as one of the ministers of the Nayak king was cured here.

The  Sivakami amman shrine had a separate entrance .The gateway had the most adorable mud sculptures- kolu type- of Lakshmi, Parvathy and Saraswathy on the top. The Nayak mandapam inside had astounding stone carvings of the Nayak king, his brother in law and their queens. Very dark and ill lit, so photos were difficult to take. Sharing some here.

The main temple was huge, had a very unique stone Nataraja carved in granite. Another special sight! Photos shared from our group collection, some by myself, some by Parvathi.

The trip included a special visit to one of the most renowned paal khova making family owned enterprise- where huge vats of boiling milk was being stirred by automated machines. Only sugar is added and these get packed fresh and sold in the outlet just outside the main Andal temple. We tasted samples and bought plenty of packets to distribute to family and friends. Therutti paal is also made, equally yummy and famous. The difference is adding jaggery instead of sugar I think, as its brown in colour.

Enroute in the bus, Prof Madhusudhanan shared a lot of details about Andal, early temple architecture, evolution of the same etc. He is an architect by profession and teaches in one of the leading architectural schools in Chennai. We could ask him anything we want and he was most generous and eager to share his knowledge. I wanted to know more about what are the highlights in major Shaivaite and Vashnavaite temples- how are they similar and what are the differences. Also something more about particular deities like Dakshinamurthy, Durgai etc. We had a terrific time, listening to him. Have made copious notes.

Will not burden people here- as I think this is enough to whet your appetites so you sign up for the next trips! See them in mysticalpalmyra.com

                                             Detail of beautiful figures atop Sivakami shrine.

                                     Very old granite Nataraja- unlike usual Bronze in most temples.

                                               

 The Nayak pillars with great detail, Prof.Madhu expplaining some intricate aspects.