Driving through temple country

Time for a roundup of another 21-day road trip, this time along the east coast of the Deccan peninsula, starting an ending at Hyderabad going down all the way to Rameshwaram (Dhanushkodi) covering nearly 5000 kilometers in all (including three day-excursions that we did by taxi).  The team was the same as last year -- Hema, I and Hema's son Shamir's faithful Hyundai Creta that did not let us down even once. In that time we visited at least five large forts*, six museums*, many palaces*, churches* and at least a dozen immense temples*. Nine stops* in all spanning twenty nights, not counting Hyderabad. And it worked, this time, without a flat tyre, without either of us falling ill seriously or our having to lose time or change plans because of some unforseen development. [* means the list of names is to be found at the very end of the blog]

The rock cut caves at Mahabalipuram

The rules were also the same -- avoid driving after dark, don't drive more than 6-7 hours in a day, take enough rest along the way, and don't try to do everything. Hema and I have similar interests -- visiting old historic sites, being out in nature, visiting lakes and mountains, and trying to know about the people we come in contact with. Neither of us are too keen on religious worship, on shopping, nor are we fussy about food. We are both early-to-bed, early-to-rise types. All that helped. And everything worked. We were very lucky. We can only thank our stars.

Some part of the Kailasnadar temple in Kanchipuram

Most of the time was spent in Tamilnadu. And the most important realisation for us about the state was that religion plays a huge role in the everyday life of the people; in various ways -- many are very devout, others are part of the whole circuit of religious tourism which is very big in Tamilnadu because they have some incredible architechturally beautiful and some religiously very sacred temples in all of India. Moreover, the everyday life of most ordinary people that we met is so entwined with religious events and rituals that it seems to give the people a certain stability, a palpable calm and an endearing simpicity that is hard to find in In dian's elsewhere. And perhaps it is this strong bond that makes the people happy to be there and gives them the energy to work hard and go deep into whatever it is that they do. For that state has produced some of our best minds our country has produced over the centuries, for example, Srinivas Ramanujan and Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.  And that region has been the cradle of some amazing traditions -- Sangam literature, Bharatnatyam, and much more... And amazing natural formations...

Along the way we saw many rocky hills like this one

But this over-importance given to temples also creates a few problems: It is hard to go to a city in Tamilnadu and want to see something else besides the temples -- if you push hard, a typical tourist guide or taxi driver will take you to the local palace, museum or zoo but there it ends -- ask them about ruined forts, about old churches or about famous sons of the city (such as Srinivas Ramanujan in Kumbakonam) and you will be met with incomprehension. There is also the problem of communication which we had not faced in the same degree last year on the west coast. Many people we met spoke Tamil and nothing else, so we were very lucky that Hema had studied a couple of years in Madras and found her Tamil slowly coming back to her as our trip progressed. 

One of the three citadels, palace and stables below at Gingee Fort

 The forts first: Of the five forts we   visited and the at least five others we   crossed on the way the most impressive   for us was the Gingee fort near Pondicherry. Built in the 12th century, at three levels, Shivaji referred to this fort the most impregnable fort in India. The fort complex encloses  three sheer rocky hillocks with citadels built atop each. It was hard to imagine how anyone could build anything on top of such sheer rock surfaces. The middle level has many structures including a palace, stables, granaries, armoury, prison, temple and a kalyana mahal.

The beautiful sourroundings of the Gingee Fort

Various additions and modifications have been made to the fort in the centuries that followed as it changed hands; sitting under a huge and ancient banyan tree near the palace complex I tried to imagine the many centuries old history that that venerable tree must be witness to. The very popular Tamil legend of Raja Tej Singh (also called Raja Desingh) who died defending the fort against the Nawab of Arcot is associated with this fort. Such was his valour that after he fell in war, the Nawab ordered for Desingh to be cremated with full honours, and following the Hindu rites. The cremation site still exists just behind the fort on the bank of  a beautiful lake. 

Crumbling remains of the Alamparai Fort on the seaside near Mahabalipuram

The very impressive moat from the solid ramparts of the Vellore Fort

Vellore is known best for its Christian Medical College which is strewn right across the city. In fact, we were wondering what would be left of Vellore if all the buildings that are part of the CMC were to be removed from it. Not sure what would be left but one very grand structure that would still remain would be the very imposing 16th century Vellore Fort which is still in excellent condition with very robust ramparts and a huge moat all around it, although the buildings inside it are crumbling. The Vellore Fort was where the very first significant military rebellion against British rules took place in 1806 under the leadership of the sons of Tipu Sultan.

The Gandhi Museum is a dream in white

Information about the Vellore Mutiny and other protests and rebellions, especially those in South India, that led to India finally attaining independence are to be found in the Gandhi Museum in Madurai. As we went from one panel to the next and read about the protests and the leaders who led them in the south, we realised that our knowledge of the Indian struggle for independence is very partial, restricted to what happened in the northen and central part of the country around Delhi, while the action in the south (as well as in our northeast) are normally forgotten or not mentioned.

the Thanjavur Museum in the magnificent earlier Collector's office building

It is a very impressive building but interestingly has a huge plastic dinosaur on one side of the gardens where there is also the local government museum. But that looked so sad that we just couldnt muster the energy to pay the five rupees and go inside. But we did visit a few other museums and they all seemed to follow the same general rule: government run museums are housed in maginificent buildings [look at this amazing red building that houses the Thanjavur Museum] but are run in a very sarkari style, there is nothing exciting about them, filled with dusty, musty moth-eaten exhibits that never had ot have lost their labels over time; visiting such museums can be very draining. 

The Keeladi museum is pretty inside as well as outside

The only and absolute exception to this is  the newly opened Keeladi Heritage Museum (inaugurated in March 2023) near the excavation site just outside Madurai.

A display of a burial urn
at the Keeladi museum

What a fascinating story of the Deccan peninsula it told us, of the many stone age, iron age and later day civilisations that existed in that area, of how civilisations grew up along the Cauvery and Krishna rivers and their basins, of what they ate, how they lived, how they traded with far away lands also in ancient times, the agricultural methods and implements they used, the jewellery they created etc etc. Completely interactive and with many brightly lit, very informative and interesting presented panels we spent a wonderful few hours in that museum and let ourselves be transported to the past.

The other place where we got a strong sense of the local was a completely nondescript restaurant in

A view of the clay pot restaurant serving local food at Thanjavur

Thanjavur named Chellammals Manpaanai Samayal  where traditional Tamil dishes from the area, cooked in claypots over wood fires and using their own produce, is served for very little money. Ponni is the area traversed by the Kaveri river and Ponni rice is the rice grown in the area -- it tastes different and we got to eat it in that restaurant. Even the oil that they use they produce themselves using oxen to turn the oil press in the back yard of the restaurant. 

The clay cooking pots

How many varieties of spinach do you know, he questioned us. Varieties of spinach? We had never thought of it before. Well, we use four varieties of spinach everyday here, he told us.  Four fries, three poriyals and two koottus. It includes a sour variety as well. We were completely lost. But that was not all...We ate dosas and idlis made with many different kinds of rice, we ate vegetables that we had never seen or known before, we drank a delicious drink made of tamarind, jaggery, lemon and ginger, we ate sweet-dishes made with millets and jaggery, we ate, we ate, we ate, till we could eat no more. And paid 220 rupees between us on the first evening, 235 on the second...The owner Senthil and his daughter spoke English fluently and were happy to tell us more about every dish that we cared to ask them about.  He employs 14 women from the neighbourhood and a young man who is always there as a waiter, but is hoping to go to the US after he finishes his graduation in computer science from a local college! We could see that Senthil cared not only for his family but also for those who worked for him. And also for his guests.

Except for that one place, food in South India does not have a lot of variety. Idli-Dosa-Vada-five kinds of rice -- curd, lemon, tomato, tamarind and coconut -- just about sums it up. Sweet dishes are hard to find, although we did find kesar bhaat in a couple of places. But everywhere it is freshly cooked and tasty and costs very little money. The chain of clean and no-fuss Raghavendra restaurants in Andhra (similar to the Kamat restaurants in Karnataka) and the Saravana Bhawans elsewhere kept us fed while we were on the road. We got a taste of the famous Chettinad cuisine only a couple of times while in Madurai. Thanks to Deepika, a student of archaeology from Madurai, we got a taste of the famous and unbelievably tasty 'Jigarthanda' -- a local thandai (drink) available only in Madurai. At her recommendation we also tasted Kari-Dosai, also a local Madurai speciality which is essentially a dosa with a huge topping of very spicy mutton.

One of the deserted villas in Chettinad

 

But there is also a place called Chettinad (or Chettinadu) close to Thanjvur and Trichy roughly translating to Home of the Chettiars. We went to visit that place and what we saw there broke our hearts. The Chettiars were a very prosperous and affluent business and banking community who moved to that area from the coast in the 19th century and built palatial mansions to live in as residences close to one another. These lavish palace-like mansions had the best materials from all over the world -- Burmese teak, Belgian mirrors, Italian marble -- and must have been an amazing little township in its time. But today most of the owners of these buildings live abroad, and have left the houses, either in the care of a caretaker or have left them to simply disintegrate. Many have unresolved legal cases over issues of inheritance hanging over them. Of the perhaps around fifty mansions in that area, at least half of them were closed. And even if there were people living in some of the others, they lacked the means for the upkeep of such a grand object. Soon that place is in danger of turning into a complete ghost town... what a tragic end to such grandeur and opulence.

The palace at nearby Athangudi

We also visited the nearby towns of Karaikudi and Athangudi (famous for their tiles) but did not have better luck. The Athangudi palace was lived in and looked very impressive (and rather quirky with the British soldiers on the ramparts) from the outside but we could not go in because of a wedding. The even more opulent   Chettinad palace was also out of bounds to visitors who had not obtained prior permission from the current owners who lived in Chennai.

The other ghost town we saw on this trip was at Dhanuskodi, at the south-eastern tip of Pamban island where Rameshwaram is located. Legend has it that it is the place chosen by Ram (by pointing the tip of his bow) to build a bridge to cross over to Lanka to rescue Sita. A cyclone that hit the coastal town in 1964 forced the inhabitants to abandon their homes and move inland. Today one sees remnants of houses, churches and schools buried in the sands at Dhanuskodi -- a very eerie and unhappy feeling.

Outside Dr. Kalam's childhood home in Rameshwaram

But we were rewarded for having made that extra long detour (by going all the way down to Rameshwaram and Dhanuskodi from Thanjavur on our way to Madurai) that took us the whole day because we could visit the house and the memorial of our former Presdient Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in Rameshwaram. The ugly multistoreyed building in a narrow congested lane in the place where Dr. Kalam's home used to be is very crowded, and completely overrun by visitors. It is also a highly commercial venture with a Kalam Arcade on the top floor where low quality  Kalam memorabilia can be bought for little money! I could have cried. But the newly made Memorial to our former President on the main highway somehow restored our spirits. It is nicely laid out, quiet, dignified, and very informative. What a great and humble soul he was...

On the way to Theni

Speaking of polished, dignified and cultured people who knew what they were doing, we met a couple more on this trip. First Sujata Kanan who runs a lovely school called 'The Little Kingdom' in the outskirts of a town called Theni. We visited her and the school on a day excursion from Madurai. We really enjoyed every minute of our stay in the school. Sujata has created a school that really teaches students how to think and how to be good and caring human beings, besides also the usual three Rs -- what more can one wish for? It was such a treat to visit the school and to see the meticulous care with which the students are taught. Not only are students doing their studies and other activities, they are taking up real local projects that will help them know about their immediate world and also teach them to take responsibility. Besides doing local history projects and meeting elders to find out more about the past, they had already cleaned up a lake near Theni that had got silted up. We came away wishing we had a magic wand and could create a dozen more Sujatas who could establish a few more little kingdoms in different parts of the country so that everyone could see what is possible...  

Then there was the owner of the Swamy Silk House in Kanchipuram who we met completely by chance. We were looking to buy a few saris in Kanchipuram, after all we could not be in Kanchipuram and not buy what it is famous the world over for. It was mid afternoon and we were rather tired. The shabby shop-front did not look too inviting or promising. But we decided to go in. Dressed in their traditional white shirt and dhoti, the owner seemed to be dozing on his chair. The sales lady in attendance started her usual sales talk -- would we like to see the looms where traditional Kanjivaram silks are made etc etc. We said no. We would rather see what they had to sell. The tall and slender owner had woken up by then and had got up from his chair to come to talk to us. We were surprised at his eloquence;  speaking impeccable English he told us that he was the fifth generation of the founder of Swamy silks, that most of his cousins and family were in the States, that the future of the saree was bleak, he did not know how his business would evolve after him, but for the moment, he would like to show us a few of his creations -- and what a feast it was... very life-like depictions of elephants, flowers and other wild life on fine soft silk. He told us about how they choose their designs, how he sells his sarees (mostly to other sellers and over the net, which partly explained his rather unimpressive shop exterior). It was another wonderland that we were briefly transported to. 

Outside the Ekambareswarar temple in Kanchipuram

Before sari shopping, we had also done a bit of temple hopping. Our driver-cum-guide for the day, Venkatesh, said we had to do five temples in Kanchipuram and hence would have to start early. At the first temple the presiding deity was being given his daily ablutions so we came away after watching a bit. At the Kamakshi temple, non-Hindus were not allowed, so Hema stayed out while before I knew it I found myself in the middle of a queue waiting to go in, with so many people before and after me that there was no escape. A group of ladies were just behind me. We had no language but they managed to ask me why Hema was not joining the queue. When I told them, they asked Hema to just put on a putu (a bindi) and come and join them. When Hema refused they just could not understand why. When we finally got somewhere close to the deity, there was such a rush, so much smoke and everything was so dark that I am not sure I saw anything.

The maginificent Airawateswara temple at Kumbakonam

Anyway, it put me off that exercise completely and I decided that now that I had done one temple 'completely' right up till getting darshan that would have to do for the rest of this trip. No more queuing up to get darshan. As a result I decided to give even the Meenakshi temple in Madurai a pass. The crowds there were of a different scale and  completely overwhelmed us. At Shiva temples the non-Hindu rule does not seem to be so strictly enforced. Nor are the queues so unendingly long. We did manage to go right up to the innermost sanctum of two very nice Shiva temples -- one at the Ekambareswara temple that we visited next and the other at the splendid 12th century Airawateswara temple in Kumbakonam. 

The impressive gopurams Brihadeswara temple in Thanjavur

Heavy rains, which followed us almost during our entire trip, forced us to abandon the plan to visit the temple at Chidambaram on our way from Pondicherry to Thanjavur. Religious worship aside, most South Indian temples are architectural marvels, many close to a 1000 years old and some in the UNESCO world heritage list.  So we did spent a lot of time visiting temples to simply look at them, but we did not participate in the worship. That way it was easier to concentrate on what we wanted to see. The Airawateswara temple in Kumbakonam, where Indra's elephant Airawat is supposed to have got its milky white colour after bathing in the temple tank, is a melody in stone (literally, there are singing steps there). The very intricate carvings of the pillars, of the square base and the intricate embellishments on the many gopuras left us spell bound. And even larger version of this temple is the Brihadeswara temple in Thanjavur (simply called the big temple) where we spent many hours simply marvelling at its architectural intricacies. Considered to be the birthplace of the dance form of Bharatnatyam, the temple has all the different Bharatnatyam postures carved in stone on its walls. 

All we got to see of
Ramanujan's house
in Kumbakonam

The real reason for going to Kumbakonam was however, to visit the home of the mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan. The house has been turned into a national monument inaugurated by no less than the then President of India Dr. Kalam. We had checked opening hours, there was no reason for it to be closed. But it was... and there was nothing we could do about it as there was no number to call, nobody anywhere closeby. I was very disappointed. There were many other places that we found closed, without any notice -- the palace in Athangudi as already mentioned, the INTACH Heritage Centre in Pondicherry, and many temples where there is no worship are under the ASI and hence are supposed to be open all day. But the ASI guards in most of them have made their lives easier by closing down those temples too between 1 and 4 in the afternoon. 

The other place we were very disappointed was to see the present environs of the breathtakingly beautiful shore temple in Mahabalipuram. Both Hema and I had visited it more than 20 years back and had a memory of the lovely Shore temple right on the sandy shores of the Bay of Bengal in Mahabalipuram with nothing but sand and sea behind it. But not any more. The temple is now enclosed with railings and is surrounded by greenery in manicured lawns and trees. The whole point of the Shore temple was that it was on a shore...if it not surrounded by a shore, it has not much to offer as a temple.... I'm sure those who have created all these walls and greenery must have their reasons, but were there no other ways to do it, keeping the sandy shore character of the temple intact? This is a good example of overkill... where trying to do too much spoils it all.

The greenery around the Shore temple in Mahabalipuram

The many-lane broad highways and roads that they are building everywhere also seemed like overkill at some places, but we were happy that the roads were so good, most of the time. Another place that seemed like a little lost was Auroville near Pondicherry -- there is a lot there, a lot more seems to be happening, but somehow there was not much life in the area (open to the public) beyond the visitors centre on the walk to the Matri Mandir. There are amazing auditoriums, exhibition spaces, open galleries, etc. that have been built, but only a couple of sad exhibitions were on, the rest of all that infrastructure seemed to be lying unused. Somehow we came away with the feeling that it was a dream gone a bit astray. The community of people living and working there had also dwindled in number over time, and what must have begun with a lot of promise and enthusiasm seems to have lost steam over time. There was a lot more hustle and bustle in the Aurobindo Ashram in contrast, but even there visitors are allowed only a brief walk past the samadhi. We had hoped that we would get  a glimpse of his life and his philosophy, at least, during our visit to Pondicherry. Sadly that didn't happen. Mass tourism has made spectacles out of a tiny bits of these institutions, and made the rest invisible.

The Writers Cafe in the heart of Pondicherry

But there is a distinctive French flavour to Pondicherry, a little intangible perhaps, but nonetheless there. The white and yellow painted houses in White Town, the french bakeries and restaurants, something in the very atmosphere there. As we sat by the seashore, having coffee at the Baker street cafe, having Flamkuchen at the Writer's Cafe or ice-cream at the Italian gellateria right next to the statue of Marquis Dupleix, it was easy to let one's fantasy loose. What interigued me most however is this Latin inscription we found at the base of a monument in the Bharathi Park in the heart of the White Town. My German friend found a French translation somewhere; it tells the intriguing story of the king, out on a walk with his minister, mistaking the brightly lit house of a courtesan named Aayi for a temple and praying there. When he realises his mistake, he is very angry and orders that her house be razed to the ground and a pond dug in its place. Later he relents and orders that the fountain be named after her.

Today the white monument (Aayi Mandapam) commemorates the provision of water to the French city.

One pillar of the gate

 

The strange entrance gate of the Dutch fort and Cemetery

If it is French in Pondicherry, in the area around the quaint and rather chaotic  coastal town of Pulicat it was a real Dutch presence. The strange Dutch Fort Geldria ends where the Dutch cemetery ends. We did not quite understand how that little enclosure could be a fort. Built in 1613 over an older Portuguese fort, this was the only fortified garrison built by the Dutch. A hundred years later, the Dutch surrendered the fort to the British. The nearby Dutch fort at Sadras (which was closed and seemed to be in need of renovation) was built for commercial purposes. 

Along the Pulicat Lake

But the Dutch connection was not the only reason why we wanted to visit Pulicat. The very large Pulicat lake is  natural habitat of many migratory birds, especially flamingos. A very nice boat man named Patrick befriended us on the first afternoon and he took us on a lovely boat ride on the lake the next morning. But before that we did go on a very long drive along a mud-track along the lake and it was good for the soul to be so close to nature. Later we also drove over the lake to visit the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota. Ordinary public are not allowed into the center so we did not get to know more (it is a real pity that they do not have even a Visitors Centre  but it seems a restricted number of the public are allowed to watch launches from a special area) but the drive over many kilometers over the lake back and forth was like a dream, and the next day, as we made our way to Mahabalipuram from there, we also drove through Kalpakkam which is partly a township of the DAE (Dept of Atomic Energy). It looked very much like an army cantonment area -- very well kept and with alll facilities.  Vast parts of that coastal area around Sriharikota are out of bounds to the public for obvious reasons. 

St. Lourdes Cathedral in Trichy

In my imagination, Tamilnadu, the land of so many temples, was supposed to be a almost completely Hindu state. So visiting the Santhome Basilica in Chennai and to be told that Thomas the Apostle was buried there was an eye opener. And there were other beautiful churches too, like the incredibly beautiful St. Lourdes Cathedral in Trichy and the three others we saw in Pondicherry. Of course there were Christian travellers, rulers and missionaries in certain pockets as evident in the many churches and the schools (as well as the many locations at which we found Pentecostal Missions) but what we did not know and had not realised was the fact that parts of the state was also under the Sultans of Golconda and later ruled by the Nawab of Arcot; that explained the Muslim presence. 

The colourful and ornate Durbar Hall of the Thanjavur palace

Ornate and very striking architecture was the one thing that we saw in plenty on the trip. The most ornate was perhaps the Thirumalai Nayak Palace in Madurai. It was simply spectacular. Designed by an Italian architect it is a blend of the Dravidian and Islamic schools of architecture. The ochre and safrron painted frescoes on the walls and ceilings, the tall ornate columns of the central hall and the wide central pillared enclosure left us tunned. Although it is currently being renovated and only partially accessible, a sound and light show is held there every evening. 

The Thirumalai Nayak Palace in Madurai

There were tell-tale signs of the Vijayanagar Empire, which I had associated with somewhere much higher up north, in most of the temple architecture we saw there. The most colourful and ornately embellished temple complex we saw were perhaps the outer Gopurams of the Meenakshi temple in Madurai (the inside must have been even more impressive but we did not go in deterred by the masses of devotees). Each little figure, each little panel, in any of the many rows in any of the many towering Gopurams of the temple seemed to tell a story of some myth or legend conencted to the temple.

Some outer part of the Meenakshi temple

One could perhaps spend a lifetime there figuring all of that out. The central myth about the Goddess Meenakshi, a form of Shakti, was that she was born with three breasts to a Pandya king who was praying for a son. The king was told to rear the three-breasted daughter like a son  and that the third breast would fall off when she would meet her husband. That happened when Meenakshi came face to face with Sundareshwar, a form of Shiva. That wedding between Meenakshi and her husband is still performed every year in a month long festival there.

Somewhere just along the way outside Madurai

We heard many other stories and myths on the way, but there was one that came rather unexpectedly on the penultimate day of our trip. On our way back from Vellore, we had booked to break journey in a little town called Ahobilam. We just needed a place to stay the night and had not put in too much research into the town. But when we arrived we were asked to pay a city entry tax and a temple tax. We told them we were not going to the temple and would pay just the city tax. The fellow did not believe his ears and looked completely disbelieving. We were perhaps the very first people who had arrived in Ahobilam but did not want to go to the temple. We got curious and did some homework. And what we found out was that it was precisely in Ahobilam where the arrogant king Hiranyakashipu was killed by the Narasimha avatar of Vishnu. It is believed that the very pillar that Hiranyakasipu hit to taunt his son Prahlad's claim that God is everywhere is also to be seen there. There are nine temples in all, three at the lower town, and six on top of the hill and reached after a long trek. Unfortunately we had no time left for that, but told ourselves that we would have to return there someday to do the trek. The whole town seemed to live on religious tourism and did not have much more to show besides the temples.

Side by side  with the impressive ancient temples in Tamilnadu, we also found in great abundance huge towering statues of Hanuman everywhere along the way, not the crouching supplicant pose that we know of the Rambhakht Hanuman but the towering  upright and robust figure of strength embodied in Anjaneya. We saw so many very similar statues along our way that Hema and I had a standing joke between us -- that our day could not end before I had spotted one more statue of Hanuman [and one more building housing another branch of the Pentecostal Mission that seem to be ubiquitous in the area]. Building tall and towering statues of Hindu Gods and Goddesses seem to be very much in fashion these days. Perhaps they make religion (and religious tourism) more interesting, I am not sure.

Nothing to be said against religious tourism, as long as it is done in the right spirit. But at our very last stop at the hill-station Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh we saw a rather extreme display another unfortunate side of it which to me looked like nothing less than the kitschification of religion. It is happening elsewhere too, I suppose, but there was quite a collection of  huge, colourful and gawdy statues of gods and goddesses all scattered around a traffic island just after one entered Srisailam. And the tribal museum that we visited there had much more such huge plastic exhibits, including dinosaurs in the park outside. And inside, the displays were so pathetic that I could have cried. The labels were either not there, of if there wrongly spelt. Whatever they could not label was either called a musical instrument or a ritual something. Completely aghast and disgusted by it all I asked for the Visitors Book only to be told that such a thing does not exist, although there is a table at the exit where it is marked with the label 'Visitors Book'. 

Random statues of gods and goddesses at a traffic island in Srisailam

The other place where I had asked for a Visitors Book and written half a page was at the Cholamandal Artists Village on the southern end of Chennai. Again it is a dream that has outlived its charm -- conceptualised by the great artist Panikar in the 1960s, the complex was a living and breathing artists village where they lived and worked together. Just like Worpswede outside Bremen in Germany. But like all good things, slowly the older artists passed away and the houses went into the hands of their children who did not all share their parents passion and vision. So today, apart from a very imrpessive museum which houses some fanatstic work of the founding fathers and also some contempory artist-members, some installations outsdie and a cultural complex around it, there is not much to show. I wished we had visisted the place at least 25 years ago when the place must have been a hub of creative activity. Wish there were more such villages in other parts of the country.

Somewhere inside the Dakshinachitra Museum

One dream that was still doing very well was Kalakshetra Foundation of  famous dancer and visionary Rukmini Devi Arundale who wanted to create a space for artistic education. Run by the Central Ministry of  Culture today, the centre seems to offer a host of activities like dance classes, handicraft workshops etc. And the third project we viisted that day in Chennai was the Dakshinachitra Heritage Museum which is an open air living museum (on the East Coast Road south of Chennai) showcases life and culture of the four southern states -- Kerala, Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. There is a lot to see, a lot to do and a lot to learn for people of all age groups. What they have succeeded in doing, above all else is to prevent kitchification. A lot of information is presented, it is clear that a lot of research and study has gone into the creation of this living museum. And that it is a popular destination for locals and tourists alike. Wish we could create such a Living Museum for the eight northeastern states somewhere near Guwahati in Assam. Wishful thinking, I know.

Compared to our last trip, although we did a huge amount, two things were rather in short supply -- excursions into nature and cultural or literary events. We had imagined it would be easy to go to a Bharatnatyam dance performance in Tamilnadu, but we were wrong. We had imagined there would be more occasions to come into contact with the great Tamil literary traditions such as Sangam literature etc. but there was not one such occasion.

The Ethipothala Falls somewhere near the Nagarjuna sagar dam

And although it rained a lot, contrary to our expectations, and the whole landscape was wetter and greener than what we had imagined, there were not more than a couple of occasions when we came into contact with wild nature. On our very first day we went past the very pretty Ethipothala Falls [which is combination of three streams and where there is a temple to Lord Dattatreya, main God of the Lambadi people who live in that area], and imagined that there would be many more such natural formations waiting for us.  Apart from the outing to the Pulicat lake,  one afternoon from Madurai we drove up to the lovely Sirumalai Hills, one evening we sat at the sandy beach in Pondicherry and watched the high tide come in and another morning we went to Osudu lake just outside Pondicherry where there is supposed to be a bird sanctuary. But that was all...It is not without reason that Tamilnadu is supposed to be one of the most urbanised states in all of India.

Sunset over the Sirumalai Hills from Madurai

Another curious thing we noticed on this trip was the presence of little (chai' 'tea) shops everywhere! They came in all versions -- tiny, small and not-so-small and had the most amazing variety of names -- chai wala, chai shop, chai shack, chai time, chai...you name it... and they sold a few different varieties of hot freshly brewed tea in matkas for little money... That was surprising because South India is known as coffee country. [On the other hand, here in the Northeast where the biggest single produce is tea, there are more coffee shops than tea joints, I wonder why.] Also, in sharp contrast to the big cities in India's north, big players like KFCs, Dominoes, and Starbucks have not been allowed into Tamilnadu as far as we could see. 

One final comment about our places of stay and how we found them. We had worked out our route and made all the hotel bookings before we started out. I had used booking.com (which I use regularly in Germany) to make four of the bookings. Most of the bookings worked fine, but at Pondicherry, the guest house [Le poshe Suite] here refused to honour our booking because we had made no pre-payment. But the booking conditons did not require us to make any prepayment. So we were left stranded in Pondicherry with nowhere to go although we had a confirmed booking more than a month in advance! [My advice to readers is to avoid using booking.com in India.] Apart from that one problem, the other bookings worked fine. 

Part of the cultural complex at Kadambavanam

Hema is a great one at finding resorts a little out of town so that we didn't need to drive into crowded cities.That strategy almost backfired in Madurai, because the rather expensive resort we had booked ourselves into was 20 kms out of town, and was really not worth the bill we paid at the end of our 4-day stay. But I loved the open-air bath in our room. The initial concept of that resort Kadambavanam was not bad -- they wanted to couple the resort with a cultural complex where cultural programmes and training would be conducted on a regular basis and where tourists could get a taste of local culture. Sadly that is another dream gone partially wrong, another casualty of Covid.

A cottage in the Mango resort

We had just one home stay this time (in Mahabalipuram) and it was basic but clean, excellently located and had a very friendly and helpful host Gautam. The Mango resort near Pulicat and Hibis by Sparsa near Vellore were really top class and very well run. The Mrugavani hilltop resort in Srisailam had a beautiful location overlooking the Krishna valley, the Tanjore Inn tried to pull a cheap trick and give us a much smaller room than the one we had booked etc etc. But on the whole it all worked fine and at the end of the trip all I can say is that I am looking forward to the next trip next November to central India; we plan to do the area around Hyderabad in two or three loops, one to the north and west, one to the east and one to the south...

Formations along the Krishna river at Srisailam

Nine stops: Ongole, Pulicat, Mahabalipuram (day trips to Chennai and to Kanchipuram), Pondicherry (day trips to Gingee and Kumbakonam), Thanjavur (day trip to Karakudi and Trichy), Madurai (via Rameshwaram, day trip to Theni), Vellore, Ahobilam, and Srisailam

Forts:  St George in Chennai, Alamparai, Gingee, Vellore,  Geldria in Pulicat

Some old churches: Santhome Church in Chennai, St. Lourdes in Trichy, Schwarz Church in Thanjavur, three lovely churches in Pondicherry

Some museums: Thanjavur museum and the museums in the royal palace including the Art Gallery and the Saraswati Mahal, Fort St. George museum,  Gandhi museum in Madurai, the excellent Keeladi museum (next to the excavation site) and the pathetic Chenchu Lakshmi Tribal Museum in Srisailam

Some temples: Kamakshi (Kanchipuram), Brihadeshwara (Thanjavur), Airawateswara (Kumbakonam), Meenakshi (Madurai),

Palaces: The Thanjavur Royal Palace, the Thirumalai Nayak Palace in Madurai,