India has been known for many years now for its diversity in religion, culture and tradition. Travelling in different parts of this country is like travelling in different countries. There are 29 states here, each of which has its unique identity.
I was in the southern city of Chennai for the past 2 years which gave me an opportunity to learn about the traditions and customs of people living in the state of Tamil Nadu. As the name suggests, people in this state speak Tamil. Hindi is hardly spoken here so people from other parts of the country as well as the world speak English with the locals. I knew another south Indian language- Malayalam which has some similarities with Tamil which turns out to be quite helpful in villages like Kanchipuram.
Kanchipuram: One of the holy places for
hindus in South India. This village has numerous
hindu temples dedicated to lord Shiva, Vishnu etc.. and a few of them are over 1000 years old. I left with a friend of mine from the main bus station in Chennai (
Koyambedu) from where Kanchipuram is a 2 hour long ride. Some stretch of the roads are not comfortable where there are huge traffic jams but the beautiful landscape makes it even. The bus entered a crowded bus station at Kanchipuram from where most of the temples are at a walking distance except one or two.
We made our first stop at
Kamakshi Amman temple, a temple dedicated to
Kamakshi, one of the forms of goddess
Parvati. We had plans to see the main idol in each temple, however the queue at
Kamakshi temple itself took us about an hour to finish and it was in our bests interests to see the temples from outside if we want to cover more ground. Besides taking a photograph in the inside of the temple is prohibited and is considered rude. People of religion other than
hindu are not allowed to enter the area of the main idol.
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| Kamakshi Amman temple, Kanchipuram, India |
Honestly, the whole village was not maintained properly and is not a welcome sign for any tourist who wishes to spend his or her time here. There are open drainage channels and the streets are also dirty. But once inside the temple, the scent of the incense and seeing the devotion of people makes one forget these things about the village.
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| Shiva lingas at Ekambareshwarar temple, Kanchipuram, India |
A few minutes from
Kamakshi temple is the
Ekambareshwarar temple dedicated to Shiva. This is apparent from the numerous shiva lingas inside the temple. We got a delicious prasadam (an offering made to the diety) from this temple. It is a tradition in almost every place in India to offer edible food to God as we consider them as living beings. In many places, people offer milk to shiva by pouring milk on the lingas. This is considered very sacred and for the same reasons, people apply a drop of the poured milk on their forehead or just touch it. At Ekambareshwarar temple, people even worshiped a mango tree.
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| Ekambareshwarar temple, Kanchipuram, India |
Kailasanathar temple stands as the oldest temple in this village and was built around 700 AD by the
Pallavas. This structure has been recognized as an archaeological monument by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). We were not able to visit the main temple but the outer structure has been preserved to a great extend and all the walls are carved with idols of lions, deities and other sculptures. It was indeed one of the most impressive temples in the village and is a must see for those who visit this place.
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| One of the corridors at Kailasanathar temple, Kanchipuram, India |
It was already noon by the time we came out of
Kailasanathar temple and we searched for some good restaurants. We took our chance at a local
tamilian restaurant which served
biryanis, noodles and some
parathas with
chutney. Everything they served was fresh and hot, so it was safe to have it and it was probably the best meal I had in many days. It was expected that the food will be spicy as the local
tamilian or
Andhra food is generally full of hot spices.
Tired of walking a lot in the hot weather, we decided to take a shared cab to
Varadharaja Perumal Temple, dedicated to lord Vishnu. This temple is away from most of the temples in Kanchipuram which are otherwise clustered in one area. Built about a thousand years back by the
Cholas, it stands as largest Vishnu temple in Kanchipuram. We did not go inside the main courtyard of the temple as there were too many people who lined up for the
darshan of the main idol. So we took a stroll around the temple where we came across a beautiful pond which belonged to the temple. The entire temple consisted of sculptured pillars of various deities.
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| Temple pond, Varadharaja Perumal Temple, Kanchipuram, India |
Apart from being a village full of these
hindu temples, Kanchipuram is also famous for its silk
sarees. That is for some other time. On our way back, we traveled by sitting on the floor of the bus near the door (It was very kind of the bus conductor to let us do that.). The cool air felt great after a day exploring these temples in such hot temperatures. These temples depict a way of life about 1500 years back and such a mark left by the rulers at that time still touches the heart of many people who come here to worship.
