MADURAI AND RAMANATHAPURAM

Its April 15th 2010, I and Parthi started in the Nellai express in order to visit Madurai and Ramanathapuram. We reached Madurai Junction at 5.40am

DAY 1 at Madurai…

ALAGAR KOVIL:
At 7am, we reached Alagar kovil through bus. Its takes 45 min to 1hr from periyar bus stand. Alagar kovil is a temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu. It is situated at a distance of 21 km from Madurai, on foot of Alagar hills, amongest the natural beauty of the woods

The splendid main tower at the enterance is believed to have been built by the Pandian kings. The maintower enterance ( Mukya Gopuram ) always remain closed, with the shrine of Karupana Swami.

The Alagar hill has a tropical forest cover which extends from Alagar kovil in the South to Natham in the North. The garden is irrigated by a natural spring locally known as the Devi theertham.

PAZHAMUDHIRCHOLAI:
Pazhamudhircholai is a Hindu temple located 10 miles North to Madurai. This hill was covered with dense forest. One can reach Pazhamudhircholai by van, car, two-wheeler, bus or by walk. There is a bus shuttle for every 20min from the foot of the hill to the temple. But we prefer a walk and there were lot of monkeys on all the way. It is a small temple with Valli, Deivayanai , Lord Murugan and Lord Ganesha in a separate shine.

DEVI THEERTHAM:
Devi theertham is an area, half a kilometre from Pazhamudhircholai Murugan temple. After visiting the Pazhamudhircolai murugan temple and Devi theertham, we returned back to Alagar kovil via van.

THIRUMALAI NAYAK MAHAL:

At 3pm we went to Thirumalai Nayakar Mahal. This Mahal is situated 2kms south east of Meenakshi Amman temple. This Mahal has 248 pillars of each 58 feet tall and 5 feet in diameter. The gigantic pillars and painting of the events that took place before the ethics impress ourselves and takes to the 16th century. There is a dancing hall and courtyard at the centre of the Mahal.

The Mahal is equipped to perform light and sound shows. Inside the palace, furniture and utensils used by the kings have been exhibited.

GANDHI MUSEUM:

At 4.15 pm we went to Gandhi Museum via bus. Gandhi Memorial Museum has a remarkable collection of Gandhi’s painting, sculptures, quotations, khadi crafts, letters and books written by him.

MARIAMMAN THEPPAKULAM:

From Gandhi Museum, we reached Mariamman theppakullam ( lake ) through auto. The Maiamman theppakullam is a huge tank which is 1000 feet long and 950 feet wide. Mariamman koil is situated just opposite to the lake. In the centre of the kulam there is a Mandapam cum Lord Vigneshwara temple.

MEENAKSHI AMMAN TEMPLE:
At 6pm we had a nice 5 minutes walk from our MR International hotel to Meenakshi Amman kovil. This is a twin temple. The temple in the Southern side is dedicated to Sri Meenakshi the consort of Lord Sundareswara and the other to Lord Sundareswara. This kovil was built by Kulasekara Pandiya. The temple is about 258m in lengh and about 241.4m in breadth of the 5 gopuras that surround the 48.8m big southern tower is the tallest.

We entered into the East side of the gopuram. We saw the Kali amman stature first. The temple has a Porthamarai kulam, the sacred pond with the golden lotus.

1000 PILLAR HALL:
It was built by Ariyanatha Mudhaliar in 1569. This hall contains 985 (instead of 1000) caved pillars. At the enterance of this hall, we can see different types of architectures on the sides.

Every 16th April, the famous CHITHIRI THIRUVIZHAA will commence in the Meenakshi amman temple and we were lucky to be present on this auspicious day.

At 7.30pm, we bought our dinner (Kari dosai ) one of the Madurai famous dish, and reached our hotel. At the end of the 1st day, we were tried, but were much satisfied.

DAY 2 :

THIRUPPARAKUNDRAM:

On 17th April 2010 , we check out from the hotel at 6am and we reached thirunagar through bus. We visited Thiruparakundram Murugan temple. I saw my school age friends and at 3.30pm we started to Ramanathapuram.

DAY 3 :

On 18th April 2010, after finishing the marriage, we both went to sasi house.

DEVIPATTINAM:

From there we went to Devipattinam. Devipattinam is a coastal village 15km from Ramanathapuram. It is also known as Navashabashanam. The temple of Devi is located in the town of Devipattinam, the temple of Adihesava Perumal is located on the sea shore.

When Lord Rama came to Devipattinam, he did not find any shine dedicated to the narayanas. He made a statue of nine planets, locally known as navapashana’s. The unique thing about Devipattinam is that, it is the only place in the world where the navagrahas are located inside the sea.






SETHUKARAI:

From Devipattinam we went to Sethukarai. It is also called as Bank of the Bridge. From here only the Lord Rama built the bridge to Lanka with the help of Hanuman. Hanuman stands in a dilapidated shrine gazing at the placid of bay.

THIRUPPULLANI:

Thiruppullani is the temple situated 8kms south of Ramanathapuram. This is one of the 108 Divya schelrams of the Vaishnavas. The presiding God is Adi Jaganatha Perumal and Padmasini thayar.

This is the place where:
 Vibhishana surrendered to Lord Rama.
 Samudra Raja ( God of the Ocean) surrendered to Lord Rama.
 Lord Rama along with the vanaras, built the sethu anai ( sethu bridge ) to go to lanka.

Upon reaching Thirupullani, there is a temple tank (Pushkarani ). Its was nice to see the temple tank with full of water. Carefully walking on the slippery steps, we took a quick dip as the fish in the pond trying to get a taste of your skin. At 3.45pm,we could seek the blessing of Perumal. The temple is huge and has long prakarams.

UTHIRAKOSAMANGAI:

Uthirakosamangai is an old temple situated few miles from Thiruppullani. The Presiding god here is Lord Siva.

The special features are:
 A tree (peepal tree) more than 5000 years old.
 Least, but not last, a Nataraj Idol is some 10 feet high, made up of “TOPEZ “ which is fully covered with chandan ( sandhanam is removed only once in a year )

At 6pm we reached back to sasi home. At 7pm we were in Ramanathapuram railway station.