Srikalahasti and temples enroute

About the trip

The day trip was planned from Chennai to cover couple of very old temples by the outskirts towards Gummidipoondi and from there-on one of the most revered temples of Lord Shiva - Sri Kalahasti. This blog also includes a half-day trip to a few other ancient and popular temples of North Chennai in the second half of the blog. 

Trip members: Karthik and family
Trip date:  18 and 20 April 2019

Trip Plan : Chennai - Thirukandalam - Chinnambedu - Gummudipoondi - Tada - Srikalahasti - Sulurpetta - ORR - Chennai

The start - Google maps got it wrong!

After voting on 18th April 2019, we started by 08:15 towards Srikalahasti. The plan was to visit Sri Sivanandeswarar Temple at Thirukandalam. We went through the Outer ring road, guided by Google maps, and near Alamathi through a village road; we got orphaned by the river banks with no roads. We then took a detour and reached the Sri Sivanandeswarar Temple through Padiyanallur - delayed by 30 minutes.

From Padiyanallur - 11 km, we took the Tirupathi road - 6 km from there took another left at Kannigaipair, and again 6 km from this junction is the temple. We reached the temple around 10:15 am.

TNT018 - Thirukandalam Shiva Temple is one of the Padal Petra Sthalams, Lord Shiva represents as Sivanandeswarar and also known as Thirukalleeswarar. Sage Brugu worshipped Lord Shiva reverently and used to ignore Goddess Parvathi. Lord Shiva and Goddess appeared together as Arthanareeswara and the sage understood the truth that the Lord and Shakthi are inseparable. There were hardly any people when we went and had a very good darshan. Goddess Anandavalli and Shakti Dakshinamurthy sanctums are special.

Siruvapuri Bala Murugan Temple 

We then reached the highway and the next stop planned was Siruvapuri Bala Murugan Temple in Chinnambedu. 19 km from Thirukandalam, we took the route of Kannigaipair - Tirupati road - NH16 - Siruvapuri road. This temple is known to be very crowded normally; however, when we went on election day, there was very less crowd and we had to wait for 10-15 minutes as the normal pujas were on the process. We reached the temple by 11 AM. We had an excellent darshan of Lord Muruga. The history is that this is the place where Lava - Kusa met Rama and waged war.

Siruvar Por Pori became Siruvapuri. Siruvar Ambu Edu became Chinnambedu.

The temple timings are Monday - Saturday - 7 AM - 12 PM; 4:30 PM - 8 PM. Tuesday - 4:30 AM to 11 PM; Sunday - 6 AM to 11 AM and 4 PM to 8 PM.

We spent around 20 minutes in the temple and left to Srikalahasti.

Route to Srikalahasti

There are 2 routes to Srikalahasti - One through Tada - Varadaiahpalem and other through Sulurpetta - B.N.Kandriga. We took to the Tada - Varadaiahpalem route. We stopped in between on the NH for lunch. We had taken lunch from home as it is well known that there would almost no shops or proper restaurants on this route. We took enough water and food from home. We reached the Srikalahasti temple (TNT019) by 1:45.

The temple visit

Srikalahasti temple is very auspicious the visit as it is one of the Panchabhoota Sthalams - representing wind as Vayu linga and a Ragu-Kethu Parikara sthalam and revered as Dakshina Kailasam. We got to know from the shopkeepers nearby, that the temple is open for darshan when we went in the afternoon. We took the guided paths and had darshan of Lord Shiva (Kalahasteeswara) in 15-20 minutes. The temple is quite big and architectural. The devotees are led by guided paths to visit the main sanctum and the Goddess. Fortunately, we got to have darshan twice as the crowd was less. Mobile phones are not allowed inside the temple - cloakrooms are available at the entrance. 

We came out by 3 PM and started back to Chennai.

Return by another route

We took the shorter route - via Sulurpetta. The road diverts to Varadaiahpalem or Sulurpetta at B.N.Kandriga. The road via Varadaiahpalem is quite broad but filled with speed-breakers. The road via Sulurpetta is quite narrow and one needs to get off the road when any four-wheeler comes opposite. Also, the route is quite deserted with no trace of any human being until you reach the NH on this 19.5 km stretch. The Varadaiahpalem route is preferred for safety as there are small villages all the way, small shops, and some people always around. We reached back to Chennai by 6 PM.

Sulurpetta Road

The temples trip - Another day

On Saturday, we went to a couple of revered temples in North Chennai - Sri Kalikambal temple near Chennai Beach station and Thiruvottriyur Shiva temple.

Sri Kalikambal temple

Sri Kalikambal temple is 5 minutes walk from the Chennai Beach station - we went by car around 8 AM. There was no rush on the day we went. Goddess Kali represents as Kalikambala in Shanta Swaroopa form. It is said that many sages worshipped Goddess and Maratha king Chatrapathi Shivaji visited this temple. Lord Shiva is represented as Linga and known as Sri Kamadeswarar.

Thiruvottriyur Shiva temple

We then visited TNT020 - Thiruvottriyur Shiva temple (or) Thyagaraja Temple - This temple hosts Lord Shiva in 2 forms - One as Lingam named Sri Adipureesar and one has Lord Natraja called Thiagaraja in seating position. The Adipureeswarar Sannithi is very auspicious and powerful. The temple is quite big and also hosts sanctums for Lord Shiva as Thiruvottrieswarar, Lord Kala Bhairava, and much more. This temple is special in one more way - one of the three Sakthi temples -

1. Ichchaa Sakthi - Thiruvudai Amman
2. Gnaana Sakthi - Vadivudai Amman
3. Kriyaa Sakthi - Kodiyidai Amman

The Thyagaraja Temple hosts Goddess in the form of Vadivudai Amman representing Gnaana Shakthi. We spent close to 30 minutes in this temple as visiting all sanctums took time during puja.

We returned back home after having breakfast at Hotel A2B in Royapuram.