Southern Road Trip - Swamilmalai and Thanjavur

Swamimalai is a sacred town and you will find a temple of Lord Murugan (also known as Lord Karthikeya), son of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati. The mythology surrounding the temple is that Lord Brahma challenged the power of Lord Murugan and dismissed Him as a child. Lord Murugan not liking this entered into a heated debate with Lord Brahma on His knowledge of pranava mantram “AUM”. When Lord Brahma could not explain the meaning adequately Lord Murugan suspended Him from His duties and imprisoned Him. Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati intervened and asked Lord Murugan if He was aware of the meaning and will be willing to teach Lord Shiva the same. Lord Murugan agreed to teach, on the pre-condition that Lord Shiva will be the disciple and Lord Murugan His teacher. Lord Shiva agreed and made Lord Murugan sit on His shoulder and whisper the significance and meaning of “AUM” in His ear. Thus Murugan imparts this universal mantra to His father at this location. Hence, one can see the Lord Karthikeya depicted as Guru (teacher) and Lord Shiva listening as shishya (disciple) in the Raja Gopuram of the temple complex.

You need to ascend 60 steps to reach this temple. Since this was something I could not undertake due to medical reasons we got to visualise this mythological moment through a sculpture at Indeco Swamimalai, a heritage resort where we stayed. Originally a house built in 1896, Indeco was converted into an eco-resort in 1996. An entire village of the 1800s has been restored carefully to create this unique heritage hotel.

 A sculpture depicting Lord Shiva as a disciple while Lord Murugan sitting on his shoulder taught Him the meaning of “AUM”

A welcome foot massage and a drink of Roohafza was a great start to our stay at this luscious green property. We were introduced to Thenmozhi, the resident deer and her clan. Other residents being a peacock, few cows and geese. Amongst these you could also find a resident potter and an iconographer. Iconography, also known as the Lost Wax Technique involves sculpting a beautiful wax figurine, which is then coated with a mixture of sand and clay. Once dry, the wax is melted in an underground kiln and poured out. The empty clay mould is then filled with melted metal alloy (zinc, bronze etc.) which is then left to harden. Once done, the mould is broken to reveal the incredible bronze figurine which is then cleaned up, polished and chiselled to bring out the details manually. Watching the whole process is quite an eye-opener and an interesting learning experience.

The INDECO property is self-sufficient with lot of in-house activities. One can visit the in-house antique museum set up by the owner Steve Borgia. You can also get a feel of life in a traditional village as you can see the ladies making a rangoli/ kolam early in the morning, a priest conducting the morning pujas. One can also milk cows, feed the deers and peacocks and watch live demonstrations of the potter and iconographer’s work. They also have fun activities like a giant trampoline, swing, badminton, swimming pool etc. Depending on the occupancy you may also be lucky to catch a cultural event. So while we ended up spending a lot of time at the resort we completed our site-seeing by driving down to Thanjavur, 33 km from Swamimalai.

A lady making kolam early in the morning

Its playtime for the resident deers

An iconographer busy making a wax figurine. In the inset you can see a photo of the final sculpture they were working on

The underground kiln where metal alloy is being melted

Melted metal being added to clay moulds

While Thanjavur is more widely known for its beautiful Tanjore paintings it also is home to the incredible Brihadeeswarar Temple or Big temple, more than 1000 year old. The temple was built in 1010 AD by Rajaraja Chola and is now a part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Great Living Chola Temples". The 'Vimana' - or the temple tower - is 216 ft high and is among the tallest of its kind in the world. There is a big statue of Nandi, carved out of a single rock, at the entrance.

Big Temple in Thanjavur

About 4.8 km from Swamimalai is Airavateswara temple in Dharasuram, a temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. The temple is a fine example of Dravidian architecture and was built in 12th century AD by Rajaraja Chola II and is now another UNESCO World Heritage site. Although size-wise it is much smaller than the Big Temple in Thanjavur it has some exquisite stone carvings. At the entrance of the temple is the Balipita ('seat for sacrifice'), adjoining a small shrine of Lord Ganesha. The pedestal has a set of steps which produce different musical sounds when struck. However these steps are now closed to public and are enclosed in a metal enclosure to prevent further damage.

The inner court of Airavateswara temple in Dharasuram

After Swamilmalai, we drove down to Chennai and on the way visited the newly built Sri Vittal Rukmini Samsthan (Lord Krishna temple) and Vaitheeswaran Temple in Chidambaram. In the latter, Lord Shiva is worshipped as "Vaitheeswaran" or the "God of medicine" and is believed to have curative powers. Pondicherry was on our way where we enjoyed a sea-side lunch and took time out to visit the missionaries-run “Embroidery House” at Rue Romain Rolland. Here, underprivileged women are taught needlework, cutting and embroidery. Their work is very fine and exquisite. We were enamoured to see that the 82 year old founder Sister Therese still traces all the designs and is the designer for all the work.
Sacred Heart Cathedral on South Boulevard presented a beautiful sight. After offering our prayers we hit the beach for sometime before getting back on the road to Chennai. While our road trip ended here we carried with us memories and good times that will always linger on with us.

Sacred Heart Cathedral

Lord Christ in Sacred Heart Cathedral

Beautiful stain glass inside the church