Thiruvakkarai-History Dates Back To 50 Million-70 Million Years Ago

Taking a left before villupuram in the Chennai-Trichy national highway would lead you to one of the most important places that needs to be signified and given a special mention. Many people know this place as a pilgrim centre famous for a 2000 years old temple. But its significance dates back to 50 million-70 million years.

A sultry morning with temperature at its highest all our way, we reached Thiruvakkarai vakra kali amman temple. Many astrologers in daily newspapers and TV channels specify this temple as a vakra nivarthi sthalam. Hence the goddess is named so. When we entered the temple, garba graha was closed with a curtain cloth. The pandit said that it take some 10 minutes to open. By the time when we wanted to stepout
for a while people flocked through the way and obviously not able to move.

The story of the shrine as said by a person in the temple is that vakra kali amman when killing an evil power who was pregnant. She didn't want the baby in the evil spirits' foetus to get affected by that. So she took the baby from the foetus and tied in her ears. We saw the visual of the story in the idol of the goddess. Month of aadi is the time when many people visit this place.

We went to the other sanctum sanctorums in the temple. In the entrance, a huge sized nandi that seemed to be as if a real one is placed. Chandramouliswarar temple differs from most of the siva temples. We've seen lord shiva as a plain lingam, but here lord siva has three faces. Each one representing behaviours like anger, happiness etc. Idol of sandikeshwarar was also quite different and not seen in most of the temples.
Navadhaniya vilakku lighted in the nava graha sannidhi is another uniqueness of the temple.

Temple visit is over. Now we moved forward to see National fossil wood park known as Kalmaram locally. This wood park constitutes trees that's been living for nearly 50 million to 70 million years and at one point of time it transformed into a stone so it gets the name-Kalmaram.

The total area of the wood park is very less. But it is maintained like tiny little forest with ups and downs as well as trees found as a stone.

Beside a banyan tree in the park, there were some broken terracotta horse structures. We thought that could also date back to millions of years ago. But a local person laughed at us and said, we disposed all those some couple of days ago.

Buses from Pondicherry to mailam would drop you at a place called perampakkam from where frequent auto services are available. Thiruvakkarai is also connected to Villupuram by bus.

Ancient Temples In North Chennai

A weekend evening in chennai, hustle bustle streets of parrys corner is the place where we were all set to go to find out something. Being the most congested and busiest part of the city, parrys corner has something to be signified historically.

We arrived at Beach railway station from where suburban trains are connected to tambaram, chengalpet etc. Walking some yards from beach station, we found some set of cycle rickshaws waiting for customers. It should have been some decades before where cycle rickshaws was found through-out chennai.

So we took a rickshaw to visit Kalikambal temple. The significance of this temple is with chatrapathi shivaji. A culvert in the temple entrance acknowledges his visit. Apart from being the most ancient, it can be also be characterized as the most crowded, which specifies the huge crowd in the temple day after day. After worshiping the goddess in between the huge crowd, we stepped out finally after a long struggle. But a presence of divine power cannot be denied in any case.

We then planned to see another temple called Kandha Kottam or kandhaswamy temple near rattan bazaar. Meanwhile hunger quenched our stomach as we were searching for a proper place to settle down and finally concluded to take it up after the second temple visit. But luckily we saw a small shop selling hot Vadas. We grabbed some and by eating it we sauntered our way to kandha kottam.

This temple was built by two people who are claimed to be staunch devotees of Thiruporur murugan. Mari Chetty and Kandapandaram were on the way to thiruporur temple. they decided to rest and move on the next day as it was already night time. That night, mari chetty had a dream that exposed him to a murugan idol hidden in a ant hill near the place where they were sleeping. Conceiving it to be true, they dug up the ant hill that was found near the place where they were sleeping and luckily found a murugan idol. It was brought back to the place where they live and built a temple for lord muruga, which is now called as Kandhaswamy temple.

Even after visiting these two temples we wanted to go for someothers too. Unlikely we are running out of time and need to get back home soon.

Anegundi- Constitutes Historical & Pre-Historical Wonders

It should be 9.50 pm, Lal bagh express from Chennai to Bangalore arrived 20 minutes late. I was supposed to board Hampi express by 10 PM to reach my destination. No announcements and no displays regarding the platform at which Hampi Express. When I was in a puzzled state, an announcement said that the train is ready to leave from platform no. 7. I ran through the foot over bridge pushing down everybody walking through my way and found out 7^th platform and the train that I’m supposed to board. By 9.58, I boarded and by 10, the train left the station.

Next day morning by 9, the train arrived at Hospet junction from where I took an auto to reach talawari katta river crossing that’d take me to a place that constitutes history and pre-history. We could come across this place as kishkinda in the epic Ramayana and Anegundi served as a capital of the Kishkinda kingdom that’s considered as the birth place of Lord Hanuman.

One has to cross Tunga Bhadra River from Talawari katta crossing point to reach Anegundi. A motor boat dropped us on the other side of the River after a 2 minutes ride.

Uramma Hertage Homes, an NGO that encourages rural tourism runs cottages and rooms for tourists. Earlier i booked for a single bed occupancy. Once i crossed the other side of the river, a person from the resort came to pick me up. 

After bath and breakfast, i started to explore. Initially, i went to Nava brindavan that is situated in a small islet  in the Tunga Bhadra river. On the banks of the river where i took the boat to reach nava brindavan, i saw another monument that's also built on a small islet surrounding rocks. The monument was a grave yard built with 64 pillars and it is dedicated to the renowned south indian king Krishnadevaraya. It was built with 64 pillars because, the king excelled in 64 art forms. But reaching that place was arduous. So i took the boat to reach Nava Brindavan. The boat was going through a rock filled path and finally reached the small islet. Nava Bridavan had 9 different types of tulasi placed on separate tulasi mada's. A person asked the men to remove shirts and get in. I tried to get near the tulasi and find-out the different types of tulasi's available there. But i was restricted to go near as it is considered as a sacred one. On the other end of the place i found a tiny little hanuman temple in which had a stone mural of hanuman. 

My next focus was on chintamani, that is considered to be the place where rama came in search of sita as per ramayana. So walking through the other end of the village i reached chintamani. A temple like monument painted in white colour. I was not able to get into the temple as it was closed. So just walked through the banks of the river in which the temple is located and then went to lunch. 

I was in search of a good vegetarian restaurant in the village. So when i went across the roads, i saw something called Hoova Cafe. But the person said, we can only serve you what we have. I said, ok. Because i cannot go in search of another and get the same response. So i was served with rice and dhall with papad. That was quite filling for my stomach and the person charged me 40 rupees.

By evening, i went to pampa sarovar. A small pond filled with lotus is called pampa sarovar and there is lakshmi temple along with the pond. People were awaiting for the pandit to open the temple doors. But i moved out to see Rishi mukha hillock. So walking through the road that leads me to hampi and through a narrow lane lead me to river bank. Only by then i came to know that rishi mukha is in the midst of the river. But no boats or bridge to go to the other side as the river was shallower to walk through.

On the other side, i found a temple that was under renovation. But i was not able to recognize what kind of temple it was. It started to get darker, so i left the place. On the way back to my room, i wanted to go to Anjanadri hill. But i felt tiresome. Hence i ended the day by finally visiting the Ranganatha Swamy temple and Gagan Mahal located in the prime spot of the village.    

Day 1, went on quite sluggishly till the dawn. I had to get early on day 2 and prepare to go for Vali & Sugriva cave as well as Anjanadri hill. Another thing that i came across was Pre-historic cave paintings. Better than all other places, i wanted to see that first. After a hefty breakfast in the morning, i vacated my room and sauntered  through the road that would lead me to cave paintings. A culvert in the main road pointed towards the way that i went. But it was a long walk from the main road. Many people are not aware of this and it is also not protected.

I kept on moving in the same place, everybody passing through that way said, go straight. Finally i got a person who dropped me directly at the place where am supposed to go in his vehicle. It was a small hillock nestled between the agricultural fields, i walked through the single lined path way and found a way to climb up the hillock. A path way formed with tiny little rocks everywhere. I went on till i found a cave like structure, it should have taken 5 or 10 minutes for me to reach the top. A person in that place advised me to take right side after crossing a particular location. Once i crossed that place, there were plains into that small hillock. I found 4 cave structures on either sides.

My excitement was at the core level, i ran towards right hand side where i saw 2 big rocks slanting on each other and forming a cave like structure. But unlikely, there were no paintings in that cave. I ran to the other side, there too i found nothing. Even though my excitements were high, but disappointed to find nil pre-historic paintings. I went exhausted and took some pictures of the caves. Suddenly, a person roaming that place took me to the other set of caves on the other side and showed some red colour paintings, which was the one i was searching for. I was amazed and took some snaps of it. 

Then he made me run to numerous cave like structures and showed paintings made in red soil. A 30 headed snake, tribal dance etc. were some paintings that i saw.  

I wanted to stay back even some more days as attractions are unlimited. For each and every yard you've got something to see and note. But its always important to get back to the groove.