354. 22 Divya Desam Visitations
The trip was planned almost a month back and I had booked the train tickets accordingly. There was a stay at Kancheepuram for one night. We thought we would book the room during the week of the trip. In case there are any delays, we might spend up forfeiting the advance for the room😊! Since we were going to use Kavitha’s car for the trip, we did not have to book any other transport vehicle in advance. My uncle, Kavitha’s father too was supposed to come with us for the trip, but later he dropped out. We were all looking forward to the trip😊!
We started our trip on 14th October from Hyderabad. Just a day before, my mother’s cousin sent a message saying there was going to be heavy rains in Chennai on 16th and the government had issued a red alert. On 15th too there was an orange alert. On 14th just as we started from home to the railway station, heavy rains started pelting in Hyderabad. We thought we will continue the trip and then decide once we reach Chennai. Next day (15th), it rained for the entire day in Chennai. The red alert was for 16th. Jayashree was going to cancel her 16th stay in the hotel with her friends and we thought we will see how it goes. On the morning of 16th, there were no rains in Chennai. Jayashree went to her friend’s house and I visited some relatives’ places. There were no rain disruptions that day. On 17th afternoon Jayashree came back from her hotel and we went to see the 1st temple in Chennai, on our itinerary, the Parthasarathy Kovil in Thiruvellikkeni, Chennai. There was no crowd as people had still not started to come out of their houses😊! We had a good darshan here and came back.
Jayashree also wanted to visit the Ashta Lakshmi temple at Besant Nagar Beach. So, we went there from Thiruvellikkeni and had a nice darshan there. I had been to the temple often in earlier times. During summer holidays, I used to spend some time at my mother’s cousins’ place at Besant Nagar. At that time, we used to go daily to the beach and to the temple. But the temple that I saw had no resemblance to the one that I saw earlier. Some more construction is happening and they are going to inaugurate the new temple in June of next year.
Later that night we went to Kavitha’s place as we were supposed to start at about 5am in the morning for our trip.
We started at about 630am in the morning😊! We went to see the Yoga Narasimhar swamy at Sholingur temple first. Since they have constructed a winch there, we used it to go to the temple, instead of climbing about 1400 steps to reach the temple. We had to wait for about half an hour in the line at the temple as some pooja was being performed there. There were some 15-20 people ahead of us. Here also we had a good darshan of the Thaayaar and the Narasimhar swamy. We had temple prasadams (on sale there) for breakfast and then headed for the Aanjaneyar swamy temple in another hill nearby. We climbed 406 steps to reach the temple. Here too there was a pooja going on and we had to wait for some 20 minutes. We had a good darshan here and climbed down the hill thorough the stairs.
Kavitha said that there was another temple nearby where the Utsavar perumal was present. We went to see that temple which was the Sri Bhakthavatsala Perumal temple. We had a good darshan here too.
Then we headed to see the Veeraraghavar swamy temple at Thiruvallur. Nearby we also stopped to have lunch as the temple was supposed to open at 4pm only, after having closed at 12pm. After having a nice darshan here, we headed to the Bhaktavatsalar Swamy temple in Thiruninravur. After darshan, we headed to Kavitha’s home and reached there by around 830pm or so.
While returning back, there was some sound coming from Kavitha’s car while applying brakes. So, she said we will take her daughter’s car and then continue the journey. Next day morning, we drove to Kavitha’s daughter’s place, kept Kavitha’s car there and took her daughter’s car! We reached Tiruneer Malai temple at about 730am or so and had a good darshan of the Neervannar swamy here. Then we headed to Thiruvidandhai to see the Nithya Kalyana perumal and then to Mamallapuram to see the Sthalasayana perumal there. By the time we reached Mamallapuram, it was already 1150am and the temple was supposed to close at 12pm. We did not know that parking was available inside the temple premises. We went to a hotel nearby and asked the security guard there to keep a watch on our car as we had to enter the temple before 12pm! Luckily, he agreed as we said we will give parking charges once we come back. We were able to get in the line for darshan by 1155am as there were some 20-25 people ahead of us. One of the pandits there confirmed that they will not close till all the people in the line got the darshan. So, we had a good darshan here too!
We then headed to Kancheepuram and had lunch on the way. After checking into the hotel, we thought we would hire an auto for visiting the temples. Since the roads in Kancheepuram were quite narrow, we thought we would not find parking for the car. We would also have lost some time in finding the parking and walking back to the temple from there. The hotel guy sent us an auto driver. He asked for Rs 2,500 for showing us around all the 14 temples in Kancheepuram. One temple was some 12 kms away towards Vellore. We bargained and fixed Rs 800 for whatever temples has can show us for that day only.
While on the trip, it began raining heavily😊! Since the driver knew the routes, he took us though very narrow lanes and without traffic. He used to stop at the temple gate, we would get down with our umbrellas, have darshan, come back and then proceed to the next temple. This way we covered some 10 temples that night😊! We had a nice darshan at all the places in the heavy rain. Only at the Ekambareshwara Kovil, there was a heavy rush. We got hold of an agent and he took us directly to the main deity here. At the actual Nilaaththundar place, there was no rush. This deity is inside the Ekambareshwara temple premises. We could have seen 2 more temples, but they had already been closed by the time we reached there.
Next day morning, the Varadarajar temple was only a walking distance away. We went and had a nice darshan there. I then called the same auto guy and asked to take us to 3 more temples in Kancheepuram. We agreed for Rs 600 for this trip since he had shown us all the places yesterday without any issues. We finished these 3 temples, had nice darshan there, and then came back to the hotel. We then took Kavitha’s car and then rushed to the last temple, the Vijayaraghavar temple in Tirupputkuzhi, towards Vellore. We reached here at the nick of time and had a nice darshan here too.
Even though this trip was done on Saturday and Sunday, there were no crowds here. We could go near the deity at all the places and had nice darshan at all the places.
We then headed back to the hotel and checked out. Had lunch at a nearby hotel and then headed to Chennai. We went to Kavitha’s daughter’s place, exchanged cars and then arrived at Kavitha’s place by around 5pm or so. Thus ended our visit to the 22 Divya Desams😊!
Many thanks to
Kavitha for enabling us to complete all the temples during this visit
From next time onwards, I will provide more details on these Divya Desams and photographs I took and also some from the Internet of these temples.
Adios till next time😊!!
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