Ahobilam - Nava Narasimhar Darshan

Trip Plan

Trip members: Aravind, Vishy, Raju, Dhana, Venkatachalam, Sankar, Venkat, Pavithra, Vaishnavi, Navina, Karthik and Hari

Trip date:  13 Sep - 15 Sep 2024

Trip Plan : Chennai - Ahobilam - Chennai

Route - Guindy - Tambaram - ORR - Thiruvallur - Nagari - Cuddapah - Allagada - Ahobilam

A weekender trip to Ahobilam to seek the divineness of Nava Narasimhar temples. We planned with few like minded office and common friends; and booked a luxurious Tempo Traveller from Chennai. We started on the 13-Sep-24 - Friday evening around 19:30 from Guindy and aimed to reach Ahobilam by dawn on Saturday.

About Ahobilam

• Ahobilam is the place where the Lord killed Hiranyakasipu and saved Prahalada.
• Nine shrines to Lord Narasimha are located around the Ahobilam hills
• Total of 10 Temples = 9 + Lakshmi Narasimhaswamy Temple

There is a temple for Prahaladavarada Varadhan in the foothills of the mountain - almost the main temple or the starting point for the Nava Narasimha visit.

Ahobilam is broadly divided into two - Upper Ahobilam and Lower Ahobilam.

The Nine Narasimha sthalas are:

• Jwala Narasimha – Upper Ahobilam
• Ahobila Narasimha – Upper Ahobilam
• Malola Narasimha – Upper Ahobilam
• Kroda Narasimha – Upper Ahobilam
• Karanja Narasimha – Upper Ahobilam
• Bhargava Narasimha – Lower Ahobilam
• Yogananda Narasimha – Lower Ahobilam
• Kshatravata Narasimha (Chatravata) – Lower Ahobilam
• Pavana Narasimha – Lower Ahobilam

Ugra Stambham – this is place where the Narasimha avatar happened - the stambha from which Lord Vishnu appeared in Narsimha avatar to kill Hiranyakhispu.

Approach to see

These temples, based on approach, can be segregated as below:

• Circuit – 1 – Upper Ahobilam - Own Vehicle (25 mins) + Trek (3:30 to 4 hours) 
• Ahobila Narasimha – 50 steps climb from road 
• Jwala Narasimha – 1 hour walk from Ahobila Narashimha (either through rocks/running stream of water or via steep steps)
• Malola Narasimha – 150 steep steps climb up from Kroda / climb down 500 steps from Jwala
• Kroda Narasimha – easily approachable enroute to Jwala
• Karanja Narasimha – Accessible by road - at parking area of Upper Ahobilam 
• Circuit – 2 – Jeep (3 to 3:30 hours)
• Pavana Narasimha
• Bhargava Narasimha – 150 steps
• Circuit – 3 – Own Vehicle (45 mins) / Walk (2 hours)
• Yogananda Narasimha – Accessible by road
• Kshatravata Narasimha (Chatravata) – Accessible by road
• Lakshmi Narasimhaswamy Temple (the main Ahobilam area at foothills)

Day-1 - Saturday

We reached Ahobilam around 4 AM. The rooms were booked at Malolan guest house - that of the temple through of one our co-travelers' contacts. We got 3 rooms to start with and barged into have a hour of sleep.

The Plan

The plan was to start around 6:30 AM towards Circuit-1. Most critical part of the planning was to complete Circuit 1 and 2 on the same day; rest 3 temples which are transportable on Day-2 morning and start the return journey on Sunday morning as early as possible. There was also an optimistic possibility of completing all temples on one day itself, a stretch goal and we did no rule it out.

As we got ready, there were guides thronging around; one of the them was recommended by the guest house person and we obliged. The guide echoed our plan of completing Ciruit-1 first as well; as he said doing ciruit-2 - the jeep ride would be tiresome and will be finding it difficult to walk after that. The guide also advised to have breakfast and took us to a local hotel.

Stay and Food at Ahobilam

There are few stay places around the Prahlada Varada Temple - no posh hotels. Similarly, there are small eateries and no restaurants like city-type. Do be prepared for such places and that make fresh food and was quite food infact. We had idlies, dosas and vadas as breakfast at Anushka Hotel, and started for the spiritual journey.

Our own vehicles can take up to the parking area of the Upper Ahobilam circuit 8 kms from the main area of Ahobilam. The Upper Ahobilam is a forest area and one has to enter the Nallamala reserve forest. There is an entrance fee for the vehicles at the check post of reserve forest. The parking area cuts short to the Karanja Narasimhar temple based on crowded times. We went on Saturday - Ekadasi and it was expected to be crowded. The pilgrims can go by walk or by the Ahobilam Devasthanam operated free bus upto the main parking place of Upper Ahobilam from the Karanja Narasimhar Temple. We planned to visit this temple when we return.

Ahobila Narasimhar

Ahobila Narasimhar was the first of the Nava Narasimhar we visited. The Lord here appears as 

Ugra Narasimha, the presiding deity is below a narrow piece of cave. The Ahobila Narasimha Swamy temple is 50 steps from the road. Every trek to either Pavana Narasimha or Ugra Stambha/Jwala Narasimhar starts from here. The time was 8:15, when we had the dharshan in the first temple.

From here, the trek starts for Jwala Narasimhar starts. As we started the trek, we made it clear to the guide that we want to see all 9 temples on the same day - he was reluctant initially and said this is 2 day activity; but we clearly insisted that we have taken him to cover all 9 temples on same day; else we do not need a guide! He accepted to achieve this provided we work with him at his pace; which we eventually did.

Jwala Narasimhar

There are 2 trek routes to Jwala Narasimhar - one through Kroda/Malola Narasimhar temples - all steps - quite a steep climb counting to overall 500+ steps. The other - a zig-zag route through rocks and waterfalls plus, few steps at few  instances - quite an interesting and engaging climb. The guide took us though the second route as it is engaging and scenic too. Enroute the waterfalls and rocks, there are picturesque moments - do use the breather seconds to stop and click few memories!

Ugra Stambha

Enroute - one gets a beautiful view of Ugra Stambha. Ugra Stambha is a cleft of the mountain dividing it into two visible parts. Lord Vishnu appeared in the form of Narasimha at this place to kill the demon king Hiranyakashipu. There is a way to reach Ugra Stambha - a very steep climb and adventurous one, but we skipped it in the interest of time and everyone's ability to scale it.

We reached Jwala Narasimhar Temple from Ahobila Narasimhar temple exactly in 1 hour - around 09:15 AM. We walked at ease, no hurries and went through a waterfall near the temple to the divine dharshan of Jwala Narasimhar.

Path to climb towards Ugra Stambha!

This is exactly where the Lord is fierce form after killing Hiranyakashipu and washed hands. There is a small water source, where one can see that the sand is still red and the water is holy. We worshipped the main deity at the temple, and took a break for sometime - had water, sat for few moments, enjoyed the panakam being given at the temple; and started the trek back - this time through a different route to have dharshan of Malola and Kroda Narasimhas.

Malola Narasimhar

A trek of around 2 kms from Jwala Narasimhar - almost a steep climb down of 500+ steps. The route is through thick forests with steps laid most of the route - a 45 min climb down. Malola means graceful; there the Lord Narasimha is in Soumya pose and blessings the devotees.

Kroda / Varaha Narasimhar

A 20-min trek from Malola Narasimhar is Kroda or Varaha Narasimhar. This route is slightly ups and downs and is easy to cover. Here, Narasimhar is in the form of Varahar - face of boar.

With this, we had completed the trekking route of 4 temples of Nava Narasimhar. Karanja Narasimhar is the next/final one on this upper Ahobilam circuit.

Karanja Narasimhar

We reached the lower parking area of Upper Ahobilam by the Devasthanam bus, quite crowded as the pilgrims rush started. We visited the temple in a moment. The main deity is a culmination of Lord Vishnu and his 2 avatars - Narasimha and Rama. Anjaneya does a penance here to see Lord Rama and Lord Vishnu appears in this form to give dharshan for Anjenaya.

It was 12 PM and we were hungry. As we begun the day, we had accepted the plan of having lunch at Brahmana Nitya Annadana Sathram proposed by the guide - the sathram provides free lunch for devotees and the food is so good - one vegetable, chips/fried corn, lemon rice, plain rice, sambhar, rasam, thick curd and excellent pickle. The whole meal was sumptuous, soothing and fantastic. We all enjoyed our lunch and whole heartedly contributed our bit for the annadanam for future devotees.

Our guide did insist us to make it swift after lunch as the temples in lower Ahobilam - Yogananda and Chatravada (Kshatravada) Narasimhar would close by 1 PM.

Chatravada (Kshatravada) Narasimhar

We reached the temple by 12:47 PM as it was preparing for closure. These 2 temples are around 3 kms from the main Ahobilam place. These temples are easily approachable and are on the road itself. The deity sits under a Peepal tree, which resembles an umbrella and thus the name. Also, the main deity would be sporting a smile here - 2 Gandharvas - Aha and Hohoo from Meru mountain would have come to temper down Lord Narasimha after the samharam.

Yogananda Narasimhar

The Yogananda Narasimhar temple is around 650 m from the The popular legend is that after killing Hiranyakasipu, Lord Narasimha taught Prahlada several yogic postures and thus called so. Here, Lord Narasimha is seen sitting on Padmasana - one can relate the epic history of Yoga all the way down to so many yugas!

Our guide asked us to goto our rooms and have rest for 30 mins. By that time he arranged for couple of vehicles for us to goto the forest circuit - Pavana and Bhargava Narasimhars.

We reached back to our rooms for a 30-45 mins break and we have been already told that our trip is going to be tiring. We started our circuit by 2 PM on two Tata Sumos which had seats, engine and steering.

Route to Pavana Narasimhar

Pavana Narasimhar temple is around 21 kms from the main area of Ahobilam. This is around 3-4 kms in the well laid roads and then entering the reserve forest zone, traversing through the shrubs and thin forest area on red muddy road. Truly, it was an adventurous time, travelling for 1:15 hours through the unlaid pathway through rocks, stones and mud, and at time through rain water laden mud slush!

We reached the temple with few elements of mud on us though we came on a 4 wheeler. We also saw groups of pilgrims coming on tractors and Eicher trucks! Even on such experience, few in our group slept through and had a blessed time!

Pavana Narasimhar

Pavana Narasimhar is one of the most calmest and peaceful Narasimhar of the 9 abodes. Post the Samharam of demon Hiranyakashipu, the angry eyes of Lord Narasimha went around and spotted Chenchu Lakshmi. Chenchu Lakshmi is the avatar of Mahalakshmi as part of the local tribe, and gets married to Narasimhar at this place and thus the representation as Pavana Narasimhar.

The tribes celebrate this temple deity as their Ishta deva and offer meat in forms of chicken or goat during special occasions and any festivities. It is said Adi Sankara and Rishi Baradwaja had visited this place and worshipped Lord Narasimhar.

Bhargava Narasimhar

Come all the way back to the main road from Pavana Narasimhar, and then another 2 kms from the lower Ahobilam on a forest route through similar unpaved road - you can reach Bhargava Narasimhar. The thick forest around, the temple with a theertham - Akshaya Theertham is absolutely beautiful to see. The temple is reached by walking a short distance of rough patch and then by climbing 130 odd steps. Though the steps numbers is small, after all the hectic treks and ride we had since morning, it looked quite daunting, but doable with a smile. One last push of zeal, enthusiasm and excitement and we had the dharshan.

Here, the temple is mostly closed apart from an hour in the mornings. The dharshan is possible through the holes on the main door and still can have a very good view of the main deity. We took turns to have dharshan and also sat for some time to offer our prayers, meditate and complete our Nava Narasimhar yatra!

Hurray, all 9 Narasimhars dharshan on one day and we started our drive back to the stay. We all were truly hungry and the guide still was actively a guide and took us to a small shop serving hot fresh local delicacies of bhaji, vada and the super crispy punugulu! We had uncountable number of plates between 12 of us, some very good tea and some sarbath too! 

Prahalada Varadaswamy temple

We returned back to the room, just to put our bags back, a quick refresh and then visit the Prahalada Varadaswamy temple. We had a very good special dharshan at this temple, and had the privilege of having prasadam of Puliyotharai also. The Vijayanagara style temple had beautiful sculptures and is very beautiful in nature. The Goddess is Chenchu Lakshmi here in this temple.

We ended the day with dinner at same hotel - Hotel Anushka - with chappathis, idlies and dosas and ending the tiring day.

Day-2

We planned to visited the main temple - Shri Parhlada Varada Swamy temple for Viswaroopa dharshan at 5:45 AM. We packed all our luggages and kept them ready to check out and went to the temple.

We had a very divine dharshan during the Viswaroopa Dharshan - witnessing Go Puja, white horse visit and then the main dharshan of Narasimhar. Post the dharsham, we checked out and had breakfast at Hotel Anushka and started our journey back to Chennai.

We planned to stop and visit the Kodanda Ramar temple at Vontimitta but so unfortunate, that the temple was in Balalayam period and we drove down to Chennai by 5 PM. An amazing trip, fully charged after visiting Nava Narasimhas on same day.

Temples around Nagercoil

Trip Plan

Trip members: Karthik, Sanjeev

Trip date:  31 Aug - 1 Sep 2024

Trip Plan : Chennai - Nagercoil - Thiruvattaru - Chengal - Kanyakumari - Suchindram - Nagercoil- Thirparapu - Nagercoil - Chennai

The plan was to visit couple of 108 Divya Desam temples in and around Nagercoil and extended it to a complete 2 day trip covering few more popular temples and tourist spots.

Started by Anantapuri express and reached Nagercoil Town station around 8 AM. 

Day-1

Weather at Nagercoil welcomed us with great delight - mild rains, grey clouds, lush green hills and chill winds - a great start to the trip!

Reached Sanjeev's house to refresh and we started with a breakfast at Hotel Aaryas. Our first objective was to visit the Thiruvattaru temple, the longest distance of the whole plan first.

Thiruvattaru Adikesava Perumal Temple

The temple is located 25 kms from Nagercoil town and around 8 kms from Marthandam. One of the 108 Divya Desam temples, Lord Sri Adi Kesava Perumal is a massive 22 feet long in Bhujanga Sayanam and to be worshipped across 3 parts of feet, body (navel) and face through three different doors. This is alike Srirangam and Padmanabhaswamy temples. The temple is surrounded by 3 rivers and one has to climb 18 steps to reach the first prakaram of the temple. The temple timings are 4:30 am – 11:00 am; 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm. The temple has ample parking space and rest rooms.

We visited the temple at 10:45 and it was almost closing time. Next, we visited one of our colleague's place to collect some honey and then proceeded to a popular Mahadeva temple.

Chenkal Mahadeva Temple

Chenkal is 25 kms from Thirvattaru enroute to Trivandrum. The Chenkal Maheswaram Sri Sivaparvathi Temple is one of the tallest Shiva Linga in India. The Shivalingam is at a record height of 111.2 feet, and also built with 8 floors inside. One has to buy a ticket to visit these floors for Rs.150 per person. Each floor is dedicated to each of the energy centers of human body - Muladharam, Svadhistanam, Manipuragam, Anahatam, Vishuddhi, Angya and Shashrara.

The temple is said to be built with water, sand and soil from various holy places like Kashi, Rishikesh, Gangotri, Rameswaram, Danushkodi, Badrinath, Gomukh, and Kailash were also mixed with the construction materials.

Reaching Kanyakumari

We came out of the temple around 1 PM and going back to Nagercoil could be waste of time. We planned to visit temples in Kanyakumari area and drive towards Madaikadu Bagavathi amman temple. The curvy roads and sea view at times made it an interesting drive and reached the place by 2:45 PM. The temple was suppose to be open only by 5 PM and we planned to have lunch. We had lunch at a veg restaurant - around 5-6 kms from Madaikadu at Hotel Venkateswara Bhavan and Thingal Market.

The drive all the way in this area is very exciting and the views are refreshing.

Post lunch, we drive towards Kanyakumari and reached the Kanya Bagavathy Amman temple around 4:45 PM. We spent few mins in the temple and cherished the divine blessings of the Balambika. The temple timings are 6:00 am – 11:00 pm and 4:00 pm – 8:00 pm.

We then spent some time seeing the views from Kanyakumari beach of Vivekananda Rock and Thiruvalluvar statue and walked back to the car.

Chothavilai beach 

We drove down to Chothavilai beach for the Sunset view. Chothavilai beach is around 9-10 kms from the main tourist area of Kanyakumari. The beach is very scenic and beautiful, given its elevated sands and the lengthy coast line view. Truly a not so crowded beach and we sat down and relaxed for some time enjoying the sunset view.

Around 6:30 PM, we decided the return and stopped at Suchindram.

Thanumalayan Temple

Thanumalayan Temple at Suchindram is a big temple in the district and very popular. The main deity at the temple is the trinity of Lord Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva together. There are separate main sanctums for Lord Shiva as Lingam and Lord Vishnu as Perumal apart from almost 30+ sanctums around the prakaram including a very tall Anjenayar.

The day we went to the temple was very aspicious - Sani Pradhosham and it was crowded with thousands of devotees - almost all of the locals around were in the temple. We spent time going around the temple and visited the surrounding sanctums and seeking blessings from the Urchavar who was going around the inner prakaram. The temple was decorated with so many lamps and it looked absolutely stunning and divine.

We spent around 30-40 mins and decided to come back the next day to see the moolavars as the the presiding deity of utsavars were still being carried around and celebrated.

We returned back home, had dinner and hit the bed really tired.

Day-2

This day was actually suppose to be light, but the day being Ayilya natchatra was special for Lord Adishesha.

Nagaraja Temple

We were in Nagercoil and what better than visiting the Nagaraja Temple on his birth star day!

We were urged to goto the temple by 4 AM so as we complete the dharshan well before massive swelling of the crowd from around Nagercoil. We obliged and reached the temple around 04:30 AM. We joined the dharshan queue and had a fantastic dharshan of Nagaraja, Lord Ananthakrishna and Lord Shiva - the three important sanctums. We were fortunate to come out by 5 AM, by which massive crowds starting making to the temple.

The temple timings are 4:30 am – 12:00 pm and 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm.

We had couple of more temples to visit apart from the pending Suchindram temple. The first one was to visit one of the two Divya Desam temples as per the actual trip plan - Thirupathisaaram.

We also very blessed to see a beautiful sunrise!

Thirupathisaaram Temple

Thirupathisaaram Temple is one of the 108 Divya Desams and hosts Lord Vishnu as Sri Kuralappa Perumal / Thiru Vazh Marban. The temple is around 7-8 kms from Nagercoil.

The main diety is of 9 ft tall and made of stone, lime, jaggery and mustard (Kadu Sarkarai Yogam). This is also the birth place of Nammalvar's mother. Perumal is called so as Goddess Lakshmi lives in the chest of Lord Vishnu. The temple timings are 4:30 am – 12:30 pm; 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm.

Suchindram again

After a great dharshan at Divya Desam temple, we visited the Suchindram temple again. This temple, void of almost any sort of crowd, we visited every sanctum and leisure and had a great dharshan. The temple timings at Suchindram are 5:00 am – 12:00 pm; 4:30 pm – 9:00 pm.

We then had breakfast in Hotel Aaryas in Nagercoil and planned to go to Kumarcoil.

Kumaracoil

Kumaracoil is a very ancient temple hosting Lord Subramanya. The temple is approachable from Nagercoil at a distance of 10-11 kms. There are around 40 steps to climb and reach the main temple. The place is also called Veelimalai. Here, Lord Muruga is in the form of married with Valli.

The beautiful 10 foot Murugan in Valli Kalyana Kolam is stunning to see and one cannot resist to see more than one time. The place is popular for offering hair, first food for new borns and many more prosperous moments in life and seek his blessings. The temple was slightly crowded given that it was Sunday, yet, we had great dharshan.

Having exhausted all our list of temples, we decided to give it a shot to visit the very popular waterfalls in the district - Thirparapu.

Thirparappu Waterfalls

Thirparappu Waterfalls is actually closer to Thiruvattaru, and we skipped on Saturday as we were visiting multiple temples. This waterfalls is around 28 kms from Nagercoil and was a 45 min drive for us from Kumaracoil.

This is cascading waterfall from the surplus of river Khodaiyaru. There is an entry ticket to entry to waterfalls area. The waterfall was at its fullest best to take bath. Even a little more water would not let tourists take a bath. We used the locker facility to keep our belongings and got into the water.

We spent close to 20-25 mins in the water and had amazing time. There was not much crowd and it was indeed a great experience in the waters. We started our journey back to Nagercoil - stopped inbetween and tasted the very famous Nungu Sarbath.

We also bought lot of local snacks - Nendram chips, chakkai (pala) chips, Mudiri kothu, thattai and the native fruit - Matti palam. We returned back to Chennai by the Kanyakumarai Express around 18:20 PM.