Our plan was to visit the divyadesams near Trichy and Tiruppullani.
We began our 3 days journey on 26th March 2009. We boarded the weekly special train at Egmore around 8:45pm and reached Trichy around 3:30am on 27th . Since the train does not stop at Srirangam, we got down at Trichy and from there we went to our relative’s house in Srirangam by bus to refresh ourselves.
Fortunately that day was Ugadi(Telugu new year), which is celebrated in a grand manner in all temples near Trichy and so we had an opportunity to see all 12 alwars brought to the mandapam. Later we had the darshan of lord Sriranganatha and Ranganayaki thayar. We also visited the other sannidhis located in the temple premises.
At about 8:30, we started from Srirangam, came to toll gate by bus and from there we boarded another bus to Anbil and reached there by 9:45am. Had a good darshan of Sri Vadivazhagiya Nambi. Here we can see Andal (utsavar) in sitting posture. The temple is situated at the bank of the river Kaveri. On the other bank of this river is the temple of Appa
Fortunately that day was Ugadi(Telugu new year), which is celebrated in a grand manner in all temples near Trichy and so we had an opportunity to see all 12 alwars brought to the mandapam. Later we had the darshan of lord Sriranganatha and Ranganayaki thayar. We also visited the other sannidhis located in the temple premises.
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| ANBIL |
Then we proceeded to Lalgudi by bus, had the breakfast and boarded the bus to reach Toll gate. From there we went to Utthamarkoil(Thirukarambanur) at around 11:30am by walk which took about 10 minutes. After worshipping the lord Purushothama, we came back to toll gate bus-stop to proceed towards Thiruvellarai which is about 20km away from Srirangam.
We caught Thuraiyur bus at 12 noon and reached Thiruvellarai bus-stop by 12:30pm. Since the temple is situated about half a kilometer away from the bus-stop, we went there by walk. We wondered on looking at the half finished Rajagopuram.
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| THIRUVELLARAI |
Another special feature of this temple is that we can see the Rajagopuram of Srirangam through a small window near thayar sannidhi. We have posted the photos taken here. This temple has two entries, one for utharayana and the other for dakshinayana. We sought the blessings of Sri Pundarikakshan and returned to Srirangam by bus at around 2pm.
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| A view of Srirangam Rajagopuram from Thiruvellarai |
After finishing our lunch, we started at around 3.30pm to visit Kattazhagiya Shingar temple which is very close to Ranganatha temple at Srirangam. But the temple was not opened by then. We waited for a short while. As we were getting late, we left for Uraiyur (Thirukozhi) temple which is the birth place of Sri Thiruppanalwar. We came to Tiruvanaikaval bus stop and boarded a bus to Chatthiram bus stand from where we took another bus to Uraiyur and reached there by 5pm. Locals call this place as Nachiar koil. There are number of buses to this place from Chathiram bus stand. Though the temple was opened, sannidhi was kept closed. We were informed that it would be opened only after 6pm. We waited there for a long time to have the darshan of lord Azhagiya Manavalan. Due to special pooja on the eve of Ugadi, the sannidhi was opened only by 6:30pm and the devotees were allowed to have darshan from a long distance. We were terribly disappointed on hearing that we could get close to perumal only after 7:30pm(after the special pooja). As we could not wait for such a long time, we left the place after seeing Thiruppanalwar.
Our next schedule was to visit Thiruppernagar(Koviladi). So we came back to Chatthiram bus stand by 7pm and took a bus to Kallanai at 7:30pm. Koviladi is about 25km away from Trichy. As there are not many straight buses from Trichy to Koviladi, we must go to Kallanai and take another bus to reach Koviladi. It can be reached from Thiruvaiyar also. We travelled in Kallanai bus for more than an hour. On enquiring the bus conductor we came to know that it would take another half an hour to reach Kallanai. Since we were sure that the temple would be closed by the time we reach there, we decided to return to Trichy. Hence we got down from the bus at 8:45pm, caught a bus to trichy and came back to Trichy junction by 9:45pm. Then we had our dinner and boarded Rameswarm express at 10:30pm.
Quick Facts :
Temple
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Moolavar Name
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Utsavar Name
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Thayar Name
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Thiruvarangam
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Ranganatha
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Namperumal
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Ranganayaki
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Thirupper Nagar
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Appakudanthan
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Appala Rangan
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Kamalavalli / Indira Devi
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Thiruvellarai
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Pundarikakshan
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Senthamarai Kannan
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Shenbagavalli
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Thirukozhi
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Azhagiya Manavalan
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Ranganatha
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Kamalavalli Nachiar
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Thirukkarambanur
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Purushothaman
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Purushothaman
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Poornavalli
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Thiru Anbil
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Sundararajan
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Vadivazhagiya Nambi
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Azhagiya Valli
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Distance between Trichy and nearby Divyadesams :
Srirangam - 7 kms
Anbil - 25 kms
Anbil - 25 kms
Uthamar Koil - 10 kms
Thiruvellarai - 20 kms
Uraiyur - 4 kms from junction
Koviladi - 25 kms
Koviladi - 25 kms
You can find the distance between any two places throughout India on the website www.distancecalculator.globefeed.com/India_Distance_Calculator.asp
You may find the photos taken during this trip on http://picasaweb.google.com/102283011920485217839/TrichyDivyaDesams#
