Tiruchirapalli – or Trichy for short (thank goodness!)

12th January, 2019 – The Wonders of Trichy

We set off after breakfast for Trichy, 100 km north of Madurai taking about 2 hours and checked into the Sangam Hotel, our base for the next 2 nights. Very standard room, but for old time’s sake, here it is.

We put our bits in the room and had a short rest and then it was off to meet our next guide (I should have mentioned the excellent Prakash in Maduarai). This was the redoubtable Dr Mohan, PhD, who had a doctorate in zoology specialising in ornithology, especially some form of Lesser Cormorant. Unfortunately we made the mistake of being polite and making an observation that that must be interesting, only for him to talk virtually non-stop about it and proving it was not (interesting). He was a distinctly odd guide (not just because he kept on talking about birds and not what we were meant to be seeing), but because he would answer a question before you had finished asking it resulting in it usually being an answer to something completely different (probably the Lesser Cormorant!). Ah well, first world problems, eh!

We headed north from the hotel for a busy day. Trichy is dominated by the dramatic Rock Fort, but the town is largely concerned with looking after the many pilgrims on their way to the spectacular Ranganathaswamy Temple, 6km north over the River Cauvery or Kaveri, (home to some birds, surprise, surprise). The temple is located in and basically encloses much of the village of Srirangam and covers more than 120 acres, engulfing homes, shops and markets within its 7 rectangular walled courtyards. It is a temple, for a change, dedicated to Vishnu, rather than Shiva as virtually most other temples in South India seem to be. For the record, there are of course many, many Hindu gods, but there is actually a trinity of top gods – Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma.

As ever, there are lots of gopuras or gateways, seven in this instance, built between the 5th and 17th centuries.Most of the present temple dates from the late 14th century after a disastrous sacking by the Delhi armies in 1313. This was the first sight to greet us.

There are not nearly so many statues on the gopura as we saw in the Shiva temples and I rather liked it possibly just because it was a bit different. Once through the gateway, it is a bit surprising to find motorcycles and cars milling around with the pedestrians, but there is plenty of activity going on…

We kept going, through one gopura…

after another…

Fantastic details and colours throughout and I can see how people become fascinated by all the mythology. It must be a life-long study and the devotion of those attending the temple is something to behold, many of them doing temple tours taking many days or even weeks.

We finally arrived at the temple proper (no motorcycles – or footwear – allowed here). To be honest, I really needed a map to work out which bits are which, but the following photos should give you a sample of some of the sights…

As we were non-Indians, we were allowed to go up onto the roof of one of the buildings to look at the view. When we asked why it was not open to all, the Dr advised that there would be mayhem and a safety risk! That said, non-Indians do pay a considerable premium on tickets etc. It was well worth it, though…

Up on the roof was also a good spot to photograph some unsuspecting pilgrims including this wonderful gentleman and his spectacular moustache, who gave me a wave just after. From up north, I suspect.

Now every temple seems to have a 1000 pillared hall and this was no exception. No idea if there were 1000 pillars, but very fine – and down the far end we spotted an elephant…

Next stop was the white temple spotted from the rooftops.

There were yet more stunning carving – each pillar is carved from one block of granite, examples of Vijayanagar style (after the Cholas) depicting chivalry defending the temple from Muslim invaders and representing the triumph of good over evil (Mr Trump take note!).

Finally a few last shots, which I can’t resist inserting (and I have really held back, trust me!).

And so that was the temple. I could have happily spent the whole day there, but as ever, time was pressing and we had to move on. We rejoined Pandi and headed off and then had a strange incident when Dr Mohan directed Pandi to park outside a shop and we were asked if we needed the restrooms. As it happened, we were fine and said so, but he was quite insistent, advising that this was the last one for ages, which was odd as we were still in the town. I was being a bit dim, but Val noticed that it was an artifact shop, so we suspect there may have been a hidden agenda….

The other high spot of the city is the Rock Fort. We headed for that, though Dr Mohan did not seem that keen to show it to us and Val was certainly put off climbing the 400+ steps to the top, which Dr M advised would take us 2 hours up and down. I reckoned that was going it a bit and as I am always keen for a challenge, I set off with Dr M, while Pandi and Val waited below. The Dr only came a little way (it took 5 minutes) and sent me off skywards, no doubt settling down for long wait as I struggled to the top and down again. I really do not know what he was on about as I got all the way there and back to the car in 20 minutes and that included a stop to have my photo taken with some very crazy (in a nice way) female pilgrims and taking photos at the top. Anyway, it was certainly well worth it.

And that was that. Despite Dr Mohan’s odd guiding, it had been a splendid day and I hope this blog encourages you to visit these places as well.

Off to Thanjavur (or Tanjore) tomorrow (or tomoro!)