Religious trip to Thirunallar from Salem

I and my family started the religious trip to Thirunallar on a Friday morning by 6.30 am from Salem in a car. Our plan is two day trip covering most of the temples and religious places on the way.

Our plan of travel is Chidambaram --> Pichavaram --> Sirkazhi --> Thirukadaiyur --> Tranquebar on day1.
On day 2, Thirunallar --> Thiruvarur --> Alangudi --> Thanjavur and finally Salem.

Thillai Nataraja temple - Chidambaram

Our first destination is to Chidambaram, around 200kms from Salem. Before that we had our breakfast in Virudhachalam. We reached the Thillai Nataraja (The Lord of dance) temple by 11, the sun was scorching from sky as i walked into the temple with bare foot. Then our driver told me that Chidambaram is one of the five Pancha Bootha Sthalams (Element: SKY).

The chief deity here is Lord Shiva depicted as the Lord of the dance (Bharatanatyam) named Thillai Natarajar. It is one of the few temples where Lord Shiva is depicted in other form than ‘Lingam’. The temple has seen several renovations in its history, particularly during the days of Pallava/Chola emperors in ancient and pre-medieval periods.

As the darshan timings were from 6.am to 12 noon and after that in evening 5 p.m to 10 p.m, we were hurried to have our darshan quickly.

Chidambaram is located at a distance of 220 km from Chennai, 335 km from Madurai. Pondicherry Airport(PNY) is a nearest airport located around 66 kilometer away from Chidambaram. The airports at Tiruchirapalli (165 km) and Chennai (215 km) are the nearest airports from Chidambaram.

Pitchavaram Forest

After having the darshan at Chidambaram, we proceeded to the Pitchavaram. It is about 12kms from Chidambaram. Pitchavaram has a well developed Mangrove forest, which is the second largest Mangrove forest in India next only to the Sunderbans.

Pitchavaram

The forest area is about 2800 acres formed by series of islets and backwater. The Mangrove forest attracts lot of bird species like Egret, Heron, Pelicans, Spoonbills, Storks, Kingfisher, Waterfowls etc.  It is home to more than 100 species of birds in the seasonal times. Apart from these it is home to foxes, Water dogs, Snakes, Turtles etc.

We reached the Pitchavaram by 1.30 p.m. The Tamilnadu Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC) has a hotel there and we had our lunch in that hotel. The price is on the higher side because you won’t find any hotels nearby it. The TTDC has a boat house which offers row and motor boats for visitors to enjoy the scenery. We took the row boat for two hours and started our joy ride with life jacket. 

Boat ride

The boatman told stories about the cinema shootings that have been shot around the waterways. From MGR’s Idayakani to recently Kamal Hasaan’s Dasavatharam, number of movies can be listed which has been shot around here. As the time passed, he took us into the shallow (just one or two feet depth) and narrow canals that run through the forest. It was covered with thick Mangrove trees of rare species Avicennia and Rhizophara, as the sun rays were finding it difficult to get through it. The boatman and god only will know the route from there to boat house, because there are hundreds of islets (nearly 1500 islets) are there. So once you lost, you will be lost there forever. While returning back to the dredged canal, saw fishermen were catching the crustaceans and fish and a family in motor boat travelling to the adjacent village.

Through Channels

Islets

The best time to visit is between November to January. During other seasons you won’t find more species of birds. The TTDC is offering two types of boat, Motor boat and row boat. I will recommend you the row boat because the motor boat finds it difficult to go in the shallow and narrow channels, so you can miss the closest view of that forest.

The boat hire charges are Rs. 400 for four persons for duration of two hours in row boat and in motor boat for 8 persons, they are charging Rs.1300 and duration is One hour. Charges are extra for the beach visit. Take plenty of drinking water with you while going for the boat ride. The boat house working hours are from 8 am to 5.30 pm.

It is my kind advice to have the boat ride in the morning, otherwise be ready to brave the scorching sun.

Fishermen with net

Mangrove forest

Thirukadaiyur

After the Pitchavaram boat ride, we started off to Thirukadaiyur.  As we started of late from Salem, we were forced to drop the visit to famous Sirkazhi Sattainathar temple and Thalachangadu Sanganaeswer temple. I think it will take a day to visit the historic temples around these areas.

Sri Amirtha Kadeswarar temple

From Pitchavaram, it took nearly an hour for us to reach Thirukadaiyur.  It houses the famous, thousand years old Amirtha Kadeswarar temple.  The temple was constructed during Chola period in an area of 11 acres. The main deity here is Lord Shiva, a suyambulingam. Lord Shiva, here, is called as ‘Kala-Samhara’ (Destroyer of time) as he protected the devotee ‘Markandeya’ from Yama’s noose by making Yama inactive. Later he released Yama from his foot as requested by goddess ‘Bhuma devi’ but gave a warning to Yama by raising his forefinger. From this epic story, there is a belief that one can save himself from Yama’s noose by worshiping Lord Shiva.

We saw lot of people performing rituals of Shastiapthapoorthi and Sadabishegam, which were very famous here. 

Thirukadaiyur temple

The temple will be open from 6am to 1pm and later reopens in the evening by 4pm and will remain open till 6pm.

Then the next visit as per our plan is Tharangambadi. It is a coastal town in Nagapattinam district, more importantly it is a Danish colony from 1620 to 1845. The Danish have built the Fort Dansborg here in the 17th century. It was an important strategic position according to the Danish military have concerned. We neared the Tharangambadi as the sun began to set, i was very eager to visit but soon highly disappointed when we came to know that the fort visit will close by 5pm itself.

No other go, i insisted driver to steer the car to Karaikal beach. On reaching Karaikal, driver suggested me a hotel in Thirunallar to book the room which is just opposite to the temple. But my idea of halt for the day is in Karaikal, but he explained that it will be easy to have darshan in early morning if you are nearby, otherwise people will throng the temple soon as tomorrow is going to be Saturday. So as per his advice, we proceeded to Thirunallar, cancelling the beach plan. We reached hotel Moon Park which is just opposite to the temple main road. The hotel is of 'OK' type and luckily we got two rooms which were the last available for the day. Had our dinner there and fell into a sound sleep by 9pm itself.

Thirunallar

On Saturday morning by 5.30 am, we were ready and standing in the special darshan queue. Both the General darshan and special darshan queues were jam packed with devotees. It took more than an hour for us to have the darshan of Lord Saneeshwara(Saturn). 

This is the only temple where Lord Saneeshwara lost all his powers to Lord shiva who saved his devotee King Nala from Saturn's curses. Lot of people were visiting this temple on Saturday to get the same type of blessings as King Nala got and whenever the Zodiac sign change is occurring, millions of people will throng to this temple.