Kongu Nadu - Padal Petra Shiva Temples

Trip Plan

Trip members: Karthik

Trip date:  27-28 July 2024

Trip Plan : Chennai - Thiruchengode - Bhavani - Kodumudi - Karur - Chennai

It is a short trip planned for visiting 5 Kongu Nadu Padal Petra Shiva temples.

Temples:

There are 7 Padal Patra Sthalams in Kongu Nadu region - One in Thiruppur and one near it - Avinashi. I had visited them already and planned to visit the rest 5 of them.

• Sri Ardhanareeswarar Temple, Thiruchengode
• Sri Sangameshwarar Temple, Bhavani
• Sri Kodumudinathar Temple, Kodumudi
• Sri Pasupatheeswarar Temple, Karur
• Sri Vigirthanatheswarar Temple, Karur

Day-1

Started around 6 AM knowing that I can visit Ardhanareeswarar temple before 1 PM. One of my close friend based out of Thiruchengode arranged the temple visit through their family.  I had breakfast at Hotel Oorvasi on the highway and reached Thiruchengode via Ulundurpettai - Attur - Vazhapadi - Salem bypass - Vaiyappamalai route.

Ardhanareeswarar temple

The Ardhanareeswarar temple is located on the hill called Nagagiri. The temple is unique for its form of Shiva and Parvathy representing in the form as Ardhanareeswarar, a 6 feet tall deity, right half being Lord Shiva and left half as Goddess Parvathy. The temple is quite big well known for a long Nagam on the way to the main temple through the steps.

The main temple on the top of the hill can be reached by 1150+ steps or by road almost all the way near the temple - adequate parking space is available at the top. Before starting the journey to the top, I did 2 things - First - visiting the locally very popular and renowned temple of Goddess Ongaliamman and then the famous Nagar Pallam - 5 headed 20 feet Nagam - very divinely worshipped by locals all the time. 

After visiting these 2 places, we reached the main temple and an archakar was arranged by my friend's family for a great blessing experience. The temple was quite crowded on that day and we visited the shrines of Vinayakar, Sengottu Velar (Murugan), Nagar and Arunagirinathar before the main deity of Arthanareswarar. We also got the theertham from Lord's feet, which keeps originating itself. We had an amazing dharshan and great blessings from Arthanareeswarar. This temple's timings are 6 AM to 2 PM and 3:30 PM to 06:30 PM.

After a great dharshan, we climbed down and went for lunch at The Central Cafe. After bidding my thanks to my friend's family, I started towards Bavani.

Bhavani Sangameswarar Temple

Bhavani is around 32 kms from Thiruchengode and almost a hour's drive. The temple would open by 4 PM and I reached there by 3:30. Bhavani river has a decent amount of water and I decided to take a plunge.

After a refreshing plunge in the river, visited the temple around 4:15 PM. The Sangameswarar temple is located at the confluence of rivers Bhavani, Kaveri and the mystic Amudha. Lord Kuberar had visited this place and had dharshan of Lord Shiva here. The temple timings are 5:30 AM to 01:00 PM and 04:00 PM to 09:00 PM.

The third temple in my list to visit - Sri Kodumudinathar temple is enroute to Karur in the village of Kodumudi. Kodumudi is 53 kms from Bhavani and 27 kms before Karur.

Sri Kodumudinathar temple

Lord Magudeswarar is the main deity and also has the sanctums for Lord Brahma, Pallikonda Perumal, Goddess Saraswathy and other deities. The Vanni tree a the temple is said the be fourth face of Brahma. The origin of this lingam from the mount Meru and part of the top of it - Magudam and hence the name. The temple timings are 6:00 AM to 12:00 PM and 04:30 PM to 09:00 PM.

By the time, I completed visiting this temple it was nearing 7 PM and started my drive towards Karur. I had booked a room at Hotel Valluvar near the Karur bus stand and reached around 8 PM. I had dinner at the veg hotel at the same place and went to bed. I had 2 temples to cover - one at Karur itself and one around 22 kms from there.

Day-2

Early morning, around 6 AM, checked out and reached to see Karur Pasupatheeswarar  temple.

Karur Pasupatheeswarar temple

Karur Pasupatheeswarar  temple is located within the town of Karur. The temple timings are 6:00 AM to 11:00 AM and 04:00 PM to 08:00 PM. Lord Shiva as Swaymbu is where, Kamadhenu hits the Lingam and the Lingam starts to bleed. Kamadhenu starts pouring milk immediately and worships Lord Shiva and is granted with a boon of doing the creation work. Since Lord Brahma was greedy as Lord of creation, this was done to remove the pride of Lord Brahma and eventually the role was given back. The temple also has Siddhar Karuvurar Sannithi.

Vigirthanatheswarar Temple (Kalyanavikirtheswarar)

Vigirthanatheswarar Temple is around 22 kms from Karur at Venjamaakudal. The temple timings are 7:00 AM to 12:00 PM and 04:00 PM to 07:30 PM. Venjaman was a hunter king and he worshipped Lord Shiva here and hence the name of the village and temple. With the visit to this temple, my plan was completed and started my return journey.

I took the road to Kulithalai, crossed Mukkombu and reached the NH at Uthamar Koil, crossing Trichy. I stopped for breakfast at Hotel Parvathy bhavan - very delicious mini (mega) tiffen and started to Chennai. In fact, the roads were clear and hit the home run non-stop after great dharshans of the five historically great temples.

Popular temples of Ernakulam and Chengannur

Trip Plan

Trip members: Karthik, Sivakumar and Krishnakumar

Trip date:  06-07 July 2024

Trip Plan : Chennai - Aluva - Tiruvanchikkalam - Aranmula - Chengannur - Thiruvalla - Changanaserry - Kottayam - Chottanikara - Ernakulam - Chennai

Primarily, the plan was to visit 3 temples (2 Divya Desam and 1 Padal Petra sthalam near Ernakulam) and 6 Divya Desam temples in and around Chengannur. We also added few very popular temples enroute and nearby on the go based on time and route comfort.

We started by Trivandrum mail from Chennai Central around 19:35 and destined to Ernakulam.

Day-1

We had planned to complete 3 temples in Ernakulam to Tiruvanchikulam area by first half of the day and drive to Chengannur. We had booked a cab (Dzire) for 2 days on disposal with us.

Train Delays and Catch-up

The train was running late almost by 90-100 minutes, which was a big spoiler on our plan. Since the train was delayed, we had to re-plan instantly and called the cab to come to Aluva for our pickup instead of Ernakulam.

This instant re-planning saved us almost 2 hours of travel time and tried to control the lost time to some extent. We got down at Aluva railway station and refreshed at the AC waiting room around 8:30 AM. We had a very good breakfast at Hotel Anandha Bhavan and started out to the farthest temple  Thiruvanchikulam Mahadeva Temple by 9 AM.

Thiruvanchikulam Mahadeva Temple 

Thiruvanchikulam Mahadeva Temple is an hour drive from Ernakulam and 23 kms from Irinjalakuda. This is one of the 276 Padal Petra sthalam temples dedicated for Lord Shiva. This temple is very historic as this is where Sundarar and King Cheraman spent days together before starting to Kailash on white elephant. The temple timings are 5 AM -11 AM; 5 PM – 8 PM. Most of the temples in Kerala open early and close by 11 AM in the mornings. So, please plan accordingly when you visit temple trips in Kerala.

Sri Moozhikkalathaan Perumal Temple

We had a very good darshan around 10 AM and swiftly travelled to the next temple - Sri Moozhikkalathaan Perumal Temple - one of the 108 Divya Desam temples. The temple is present by the banks of river Poorna also known as Chalakudy river, near Aluva. It is said the Lakshmana had built this temple for Lord Vishnu. The temple is named so, as Lord Vishnu appeared before Haritha Maharishi and uttered ways to overcome Kaliyuga problems - hence "Thiru Mozhi". The temple timings are 5 AM -11 AM; 5 PM – 8 PM.

By the time, we came out, it was almost 11 AM and the temple nearby Ernakulam would have closed as well. We then decided to visit this missed temple, before we board the train on Sunday evening.

Enroute Chengannur

We then, visited Siva's relative, one who arranged cab for us from Thirupunithara. We took the route via Vaikom - Kumarakom - Kottayam to reach the farthest temple down south in our plan - almost a 3 hour drive from Ernakulam to Aranmula. We had lunch at Hotel Aryas at Vaikom.

The Chengannur Divya Desam temples are associated with Mahabharata and linked to each of the Pancha Pandavas.

Aranmula

We reached Aranmula temple around 4:15 PM. Krishna bought the very famous Aranmula mirror - made of glazed tile. The temple is located around 12 kms from Chengannur. The temple opened at 4:30 and we had darshan immediately. Aranmula's main deity is Sri Parthasarathy Perumal and the deity was so well presented with the moustache. The temple is also renowned for the paal payasam and we were blessed to taste it. The temple is located by the banks of Pamba river and associated to Mahabharata - this temple being built by Arjuna. Temple timings are 4:30 AM -12:30 PM; 4:30 PM – 8 PM.

Thirupuliyoor

Next temple was at Thirupuliyoor - Sri Maayapiran Perumal Temple. This temple is connected with Mahabharata and built by Bheema and also called Puliyoor Maha Vishnu temple. The temple also has a huge stone Gadhai at the entrance depicting the Bheema connect. The temple is 4 kms from Chengannur.

Thrichittat / Thirucchenkundroor

Thrichittat Maha Vishnu temple is within the town of Chengannur - also called Sri Imayavarappa Perumal Temple. This temple is connected with Mahabharata and built by the eldest of Pancha Pandavas - Yudhistra.

It was almost 6:30 PM and most of the temples would close by 7 PM. The rest 3 temples around Chengannur where on the route towards Ernakulam. We planned to visit these 3 on next day morning and drive towards Ernakulam.

We completed the spiritual day with a visit to the very popular Chengannur Mahadeva temple.

Chengannur Mahadeva temple

Chengannur Mahadeva temple is within the town of Chengannur - 500m from Chengannur railway station. The temple is very auspicious and hosts the representation of Arthanareeswarar in the main Lingam sanctum. The temple is quite big and would take 20 minutes to go around. Most of the temples close by 7 PM in Kerala and we ended the day.

We had booked our rooms at Hotel Amden; spacious and ok ok room. We relaxed nearby for some time. It also had pure veg restaurant Hotel Aryas and we had dinner there itself.

Day-2

Our plan was to visit the pending 3 temples at the earliest and try to accommodate few more popular temples as much as possible enroute to Ernakulam. The most important factor was that most of the temples in Kerala are open by 4 AM to 5 AM influenced us to start early and head in the right momentum.

Thiruvanvandoor

The first temple to visit was 6 kms from Chengannur - Sri Paambanaiyappa Perumal Temple. This temple timings were 5:30 AM -11 AM; 5 PM – 7:30 PM and we made it a point to reach there around 5:45 AM. We had a very pleasant darshan so early in the morning with almost only us in the temple. This temple is said to be that Divyadesam sthalam which was built by Nakulan.

Thiruvalvaazh

Next we visited the Sri Kolapira Perumal Temple at Thiruvalla. The temple is also known as Sree Vallabha Temple. This is 7 kms from the Thiruvanvandoor temple. This temple opens even earlier, with timings of 4:00 AM -11:30 AM; 5 PM – 8 PM.

One more very peaceful dharshan with almost none around in such a calm morning. By 6:15, we had completed these 2 temples.

Before we drove to the next and last of the 6 Divya desam temples in the area, we stopped by the very popular Bhagavathi temple at Chakkulathukavu.

Chakkulathukavu

Situated 9 kms from Thiruvalla, Chakkulathukavu Bhagavathi amman temple is very popular in the state. The Chakkulathukavu Bhagavathi amman is said to have terminated the 2 asuras - Sumbhan and Nisumbhan and liberated the devas from their torture. The temple is quite big, popular and crowded. The temple also has so many sanctums - Lord Shiva, Ganesha, Subramanya, Nagar, Hanuman and several others.

Thirukkadithaanam

Sri Athpudha Narayana Perumal Temple was the last temple for us as per the plan to visit near Chengannur. This temple is closer to Chenganaserry - 6 kms. Sahadevan from the Pancha Pandavas had built this temple. Temple timings - 4:00 AM -11:00 AM; 5 PM – 8 PM.

We were discussing about Chottanikara Bhagavathi Amman temple if we get time, and we got time. Enroute to Chottanikara, we planned to have breakfast at Kottayam. Entering Kottayam, we spotted a Mahadeva temple at Kottayam which is also a very popular temple. We stopped by and visited the temple.

Mahadeva temple at Kottayam

This temple is called Thirunakkara Mahadeva Temple - A 16th century temple built by one of the Kings back then, is a popular temple and one of the revered 108 Shiva temples of Kerala. The king was visited couple of other old temples at Vaikom (Vadakkumnathan) and one day had a dream of a suyambu linga in this location and built the temple.

Breakfast at hotel Anandh bhavan at Kottayam - Idlies, idiyappam, dosas, vadai and coffee - all of them were delicious and very good.

Chottanikara

We reached Chottanikara - 22 kms from Kottayam around 10:15 AM. The temple was too heavily crowded with almost few thousand people on queue for the darshan. We roamed around and understood there was a special queue for darshan with a payment of 1400 with Ghee samarpan for abhishekam. We paid and took the queue and had darshan in no time - we had an amazing dharshan and were out in 15 mins! Wow ... the crowd and a way out for a satisfactory darshan.

The temple is very auspicious and special in few ways.  The Goddess will be presented as Saraswathy in the morning, Mahalakshmi in mid-day and Goddess Durga by evening. This is one of the very renowned temples in the state of Kerala.

Having satisfactorily had darshan of all the temples we visited, we were very content and reminded of the only temple to visit in Ernakulam, which we missed on the earlier day because of train delay.

The mid-day is going to be void and we decided to visit Fort Kochi through Kochi Water Metro based on local advice.

Water Metro

India's first water metro - at Kochi! We reached the High court area after the Marine Drive and left the car at the parking space. We took one way ticket of Rs.40 per person to Fort Kochi and reached there in 12-15 mins. The whole experience of very clean and well managed Water metro station, the flashy boards and details, the Cochin Shipyard built electric boats transfers 100+ people in a single ride! The experience was great with the wide glass windows admiring the place around from the boat.

We reached Fort Kochi strolled around and settled in a road side eatery - Fort Kochi is very popular for these type of eateries. We had a Zucchini pizza, Kerala parotta (why to miss this while in Kerala) with Paneer masala! 

We strolled around for some time by the streets of Fort Kochi and returned back to the main land by Water metro again!

Thirukkaatkarai

The last of the temples that we planned to visit is located around 9 kms from the Ernakulam railway station - Sri Kaatkarai Appa Perumal Temple. The temple was suppose to open by 5 PM; and we reached early around 4 PM and took some rest.

The temple opened exactly on time and were the first to have a darshan. The temple timings are 5 AM -11 AM; 5 PM – 8 PM.

On the way to the railway station, we bought some local chips, and packed dinner. The whole trip though started with some delays, ended with lot of satisfaction and completeness.