Kumbakonam, Darasuram, Gangaikondacholapuram and Chidambaram, temples on the way to Puducherry

As these temples are only open till mid day so we visited them over two mornings. It still felt like a whirlwind tour! They are also quite a distance apart.

Just outside Darasuram is the Airavatesvara Temple, the third of the great Chola temples, built during the reign of Rajaraja II btween 1146-72. It’s known as ‘the temple of perpetual entertainment’ as there are so many sculptures of dancers and acrobat depicting scenes from everyday life.

The design is different as the Nandi (Bull) is sunken outside the main entrance.

You walk past the Nandi and in through the entrance gate you find the main temple shrine in front of you guarded by a small Nandi.

The entrance hall is designed to look like a chariot, and has these sculptures at either corner.

The pillars and ceilings are richly decorated with flowers.

It was so quiet in the temple that when we walked up to the shrine we were the only people there. The priest showed us how to bless ourselves and what to chant whilst we did it. We have been very careful not to impede on other people whilst we’ve been near the shrines before but now we feel more confident about paying our respects to the gods.

The Ramasvami Temple in Kumbakonam has beautifully painted stucco on the towers, a large inner shrine complex (no photos allowed) and behind were hundreds of paintings showing various legends of the gods on three walls

There we’re also loads of tiny squirrels who had made the temple their home.

Next temple was in Gangaikondacholapuram or ‘the City of the King Who Conquered the Ganga’ (Ganges). Built by Rajendra (Rajaraja’s son) after he invaded the north and conquered many territories reaching as far as the Ganges. Which is confusingly also named Brihadeswara Temple (like the one in Thanjavur). It’s said that he tried to outdo his father’s version but he failed.

Unusually the Nandi is outside of the main complex and there is a smaller Nandi carved out of black stone before you enter the shrine complex.

A huge collonaded hall leads to the shrine.

As always each doorway has matching ‘guards’ with fangs and (according to the books) a benign smile.

This wwas taken from the back of the complex

The main difference to the outside is that the stone blocks have rounded edges.

It’s surrounded by beautiful gardens and of course it has a seperate shrine for Ganesh.

And this impressive animal too

Next we were off to the Nataraja Temple in Chidambaram. This one was massively busy, again not being Hindu we weren’t allowed into the inner shrine and could take photos.

There are Brahmins at every shrine. They ring a bell very loudly when a ceremony is about to start, so everybody surges forward to watch and pray. Then when that finishes another bell rings and people move on.

There are records of the temple’s existence before the 10th century and legend has it that it was built by ‘the golden coloured emperor’ Hiranaya Varna Chakravati, who suffered from leprosy. He came here on a pilgrimage in AD500 and was cured, so in thanks he rebuilt and extended the existing temple.

Amazing ceiling art work.

We moved on that afternoon to Puducherry and stayed in a very posh hotel.

Not only did it have the impressive glass lifts, it also had an artistic interpretation of a French town painted on the other 3 walls which included these interesting balcony scenes.